2016 American Music Awards nominees announced

The American Music Awards, the world’s biggest fan-voted award show, has announced the 2016 American Music Awards nominees with recording artists Joe Jonas and Rachel Platten revealing six categories of nominees live on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Immediately following the broadcast, five additional categories were announced in real time exclusively via Snapchat (TheAMAs). ABC News then livestreamed the remaining 17 categories and included a recap of all nominees in the 11 previously announced categories. (See the full list of nominees below). The 2016 American Music Awards will broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 20th at 8 pm ET on ABC.

Drake leads with 13 nominations and sets a new AMA record for most nominations in a single year, surpassing Michael Jackson’s previous record of 11 nominations in 1984. Rihanna received seven nominations and Adele and Justin Bieber received five each. Beyoncé and The Chainsmokers each received four nominations. Additionally, Bryson Tiller, Twenty One Pilots, Carrie Underwood, Fetty Wap and The Weeknd earn three nominations each.

The Artist of the Year nominees are Adele, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Drake, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Twenty One Pilots, Carrie Underwood and The Weeknd. The ten nominees will be narrowed to five based on the votes received through Monday, November 14th at 8:59:59 am PT. Voting for Artist of the Year will close on Thursday, November 17th at 8:59:59 pm PT. The winner will be determined by the total votes received throughout the entire voting period.

Nominees for New Artist of the Year Un-leashed by T-Mobile are Alessia Cara, The Chainsmokers, DNCE, Shawn Mendes and Zayn. Voting for this category opens November 2nd.

At the American Music Awards, artists will be honored in multiple musical genres. Pop/Rock, Alternative Rock, Country, Rap/Hip-Hop, Soul/R&B, Adult Contemporary, Contemporary Inspirational, Latin, EDM and Soundtrack, are some of the genres alongside the awards for Artist of the Year, New Artist of the Year Un-leashed by T-Mobile and Collaboration of the Year. This year, new categories include Tour of the Year and Video of the Year, while Favorite Song categories in the genres of Pop/Rock, Country, Rap/Hip-Hop and Soul/R&B have been added in lieu of the Song of the Year category.

American Music Awards nominees are based on key fan interactions as reflected in Billboard Magazine and on Billboard.com, including album and digital song sales, radio airplay, streaming, social activity and touring. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and its data partners, including Nielsen Music and Next Big Sound.

The American Music Awards winners are voted entirely by fans. Voting is open in all categories except New Artist of the Year Un-leashed by T-Mobile, which will open on November 2nd.

Fans can vote for all category once per day, per platform in one or both of the below ways. For New Artist of the Year Un-leashed by T-Mobile, fans can vote 100 times per day, per platform.

  • Via AMAvote.com
  • Posting a tweet on Twitter that includes the nominee’s Twitter handle, the category name and #AMAs within the post(s).

Preceding the ABC broadcast for the 8th consecutive year will be the Coca-Cola® Red Carpet LIVE! @ The 2016 AMAs pre-show. This live show will stream online for fans worldwide on November 20th.

The 2016 American Music Awards is produced by dick clark productions. Allen Shapiro and Mike Mahan are Executive Producers. Larry Klein, Barry Adelman and Mark Bracco are Producers.

2016 AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS NOMINEES:
ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Adele
Beyoncé
Justin Bieber
Drake
Selena Gomez
Ariana Grande
Rihanna
Twenty One Pilots
Carrie Underwood
The Weeknd

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR UN-LEASHED BY T-MOBILE

Alessia Cara
The Chainsmokers
DNCE
Shawn Mendes
ZAYN

COLLABORATION OF THE YEAR

The Chainsmokers Featuring Daya “Don’t Let Me Down”
Drake Featuring Wizkid & Kyla “One Dance”
Fifth Harmony Featuring Ty Dolla $ign “Work From Home”
Rihanna Featuring Drake “Work”
Meghan Trainor Featuring John Legend “Like I’m Gonna Lose You”

TOUR OF THE YEAR

Beyoncé
Madonna
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

VIDEO OF THE YEAR

Justin Bieber “Sorry”
Desiigner “Panda”
Rihanna Featuring Drake “Work”

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST – POP/ROCK

Justin Bieber
Drake
The Weeknd

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST – POP/ROCK

Adele
Selena Gomez
Rihanna

FAVORITE DUO OR GROUP – POP/ROCK

The Chainsmokers
DNCE
Twenty One Pilots

FAVORITE ALBUM – POP/ROCK

Adele “25”
Justin Bieber “Purpose”
Drake “Views”

FAVORITE SONG- POP/ROCK

Adele “Hello”
Justin Bieber “Love Yourself”
Drake Featuring Wizkid & Kyla “One Dance”

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST – COUNTRY

Luke Bryan
Thomas Rhett
Blake Shelton

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST – COUNTRY

Kelsea Ballerini
Cam
Carrie Underwood

FAVORITE DUO or GROUP – COUNTRY

Florida Georgia Line
Old Dominion
Zac Brown Band

FAVORITE ALBUM – COUNTRY

Luke Bryan “Kill the Lights”
Chris Stapleton “Traveller”
Carrie Underwood “Storyteller”

FAVORITE SONG – COUNTRY

Florida Georgia Line “H.O.L.Y.”
Tim McGraw “Humble And Kind”
Thomas Rhett “Die A Happy Man”

FAVORITE ARTIST – RAP/HIP-HOP

Drake
Fetty Wap
Future

FAVORITE ALBUM – RAP/HIP-HOP

Drake “Views”
Drake & Future “What A Time To Be Alive”
Fetty Wap “Fetty Wap”

FAVORITE SONG – RAP/HIP-HOP

Desiigner “Panda”
Drake “Hotline Bling”
Fetty Wap “679”

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST – SOUL/R&B

Chris Brown
Bryson Tiller
The Weeknd

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST – SOUL/R&B

Beyoncé
Janet Jackson
Rihanna

FAVORITE ALBUM – SOUL/R&B

Beyoncé “Lemonade”
Rihanna “Anti”
Bryson Tiller “T R A P S O U L”

FAVORITE SONG – SOUL/R&B

Drake Featuring Wizkid & Kyla “One Dance”
Rihanna Featuring Drake “Work”
Bryson Tiller “Don’t”

FAVORITE ARTIST – ALTERNATIVE ROCK

Coldplay
Twenty One Pilots
X Ambassadors

FAVORITE ARTIST – ADULT CONTEMPORARY

Adele
Rachel Platten
Meghan Trainor

FAVORITE ARTIST – LATIN

J Balvin
Enrique Iglesias
Nicky Jam

FAVORITE ARTIST – CONTEMPORARY INSPIRATIONAL

Lauren Daigle
Hillsong UNITED
Chris Tomlin

FAVORITE ARTIST – ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC (EDM)

The Chainsmokers
Calvin Harris
Major Lazer

TOP SOUNDTRACK

Purple Rain
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Suicide Squad: The Album

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com