VOX Teen Blog

Courtesy ABC

The 2009 American Music Awards (AMA) show was a historical and surprisingly interesting spectacle that included booing, a piano set on fire, and a keyboardist makeout session.

While I missed Janet Jackson’s show-opening medley of her ‘80s and ‘90s hits, including “Control,” “What Have You Done for Me Lately,” “Together Again” and her new single “Make Me,” Entertainment Weekly’s, Leah Greenblatt rated Jackson’s performance a “B+”. Upon watching it on YouTube, “Together Again” gave me chill, evoking a feeling that Jackson was singing the song directly to her late brother. The entire audience seemed genuinely touched by the performance.

After an introduction by World Series champ and Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez (who was simultaneously booed and cheered — likely relating to NY winning the World Series), Jay-Z and Alicia Keys performed their hit, “Empire State of Mind.” Most of the crowd seemed to enjoy the performance, though the camera caught some awkward nods from a few celebs.

Rihanna made a rather strong comeback performance, singing her new song, “Wait Your Turn (The Wait is Ova).” The performance was pitchy in terms of vocals, but reportedly there were audio problems throughout the show.  Rihanna was decked out in a white horizontally cut-out bodysuit with a shoulder piece reflecting red lasers. Unfortunately, the outfit was more interesting than Rihanna herself.

Carrie Underwood and Lady Gaga performed back-to-back. Underwood sang her hit “Cowboy Casanova” while weaving in-and-out among Western showgirl-styled female dancers. But Lady Gaga soon made Underwood’s performance an after thought, breaking out one jerky song-and-dance number with her new hit “Bad Romance” in a bodysuit complete with shoes, a hat and a body piece, all resembling a light-studded rib cage. Halfway through her performance, Gaga smashed her microphone stand into a glass box that enclosed a flaming piano which she effortlessly played while singing a new, beautiful ballad called “Speechless.”

Jennifer Lopez premiered her catchy new single “Louboutins” with a boxing-match themed performance that was just OK until she caught my attention with a J.Lo-style dance solo. Blogs ran rampant about a stunt that went wrong when Lopez jumped off the boxing platform and fell. She says she meant to do that. Watching the footage back, I don’t think so.

Whitney Houston was the seventh recipient in history of the International Artist of the Year Award (past recipients include Led Zeppelin and Michael Jackson. Houston looked beautiful as she performed an emotional rendition of “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” and was visibly touched by the applause she received from her performance. Afterwards, she gave a heartfelt acceptance speech to her fans and supporters.

Awards-wise, I was disappointed that Lady Gaga, easily the most successful nominee in the Best New Artist Category, lost to country group Gloriana.  Perhaps even more shockingly, Michael Jackson lost to Taylor Swift (who also won Country Female and Pop/Rock Female) in the Artist of the Year category. But Jermaine Jackson made two trips to the stage earlier on his brother’s behalf (the first time he brought his immediate family onstage with him, and on the second trip made an awkward speech about loving everyone) for winning Male R&B and Pop/Rock Male awards, which brought the late King of Pop’s AMA accolades total to twenty three.

The AMAs closed with American Idol alum Adam Lambert debuting his new single, “For Your Entertainment.” The very provocative performance included Lambert dragging a female dancer across stage, pseudo-fellatio, and Lambert making out with a keyboardist whose gender was rather ambiguous (though blogs are now reporting that it was a male musician). Though Lambert’s voice was a bit pitchy that night, the performance outshined the song and Lambert’s impressive vocals.

What did you think of the AMAs? Was J. Lo’s stumble intentional? Did Lambert’s performance go too far? We’d love to hear from you!

— By Kelcie Willis/VOX Staff