THE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS® ANNOUNCES 2019 NOMINEES

AS THE kick-off to this year’s highly anticipated 2019 American Music Awards, chart-topping artist and AMA nominee Ella Mai announced the 2019 American Music Awards nominees in four categories followed by additional nominees announced via the AMAs social media accounts, including three categories which launched the AMAs TikTok profile. 

The 2019 American Music Awards will broadcast live on Blue Ant Entertainment (Unifi TV Ch 473) on Monday, November 25 at 8:00am (GMT +8). 

Two-time AMA winner, Post Malone, is the most nominated artist this year with seven total nominations, including Artist of the Year, Collaboration of the Year and Favorite Male Artist – Pop/Rock. Three-time AMA winner, Ariana Grande, and first-time AMA nominee, Billie Eilish, each received six nods including Favorite Music Video, Favorite Social Artist, Favorite Female Artist – Pop/Rock and Favorite Album – Pop/Rock. Lil Nas X and Taylor Swift are tied with five nominations each, followed by Billy Ray Cyrus, Khalid and Ella Mai with four each.

Nominees for the coveted Artist of the Year category are Drake, Ariana Grande, Halsey, Post Malone and Taylor Swift. Swift is the current record holder for most wins in this category with four wins. 

Swift could also go on to surpass Michael Jackson’s record for most AMA wins of all time, 24, should she win in two of the five categories she’s nominated in. Swift and Alabama are currently tied with 23 all-time AMA wins.

The American Music Awards, the world’s largest fan-voted awards show, is where music enthusiasts watch their favorite artists and pop culture icons come together to honor idols, newcomers and record-breakers in the contemporary music scene.  

From Pop and Rock, to Country, Hip Hop and beyond, this year’s show will celebrate some of the best moments in music with appearances by today’s brightest stars and live performances from the biggest names in the industry.

American Music Awards nominees are based on key fan interactions as reflected on Billboard.com, including streaming, album and digital song sales, radio airplay, social activity and touring. 

These measurements are tracked by Billboard and its data partners, including Nielsen Music and Next Big Sound, and reflect the time period of September 28, 2018 through September 26, 2019. The American Music Awards winners are voted entirely by fans.

Voting is now open for all AMA categories. Fans can access the official voting ballot for the AMAs directly by visiting goo.gle/AMAsVote or by going to Google.com and using the search terms “AMAs Vote” or “[Nominee Name] AMAs Vote.” Fans can submit up to 30 votes per category per day per Google account while voting is open. Voting will close on Wednesday, November 20, 2019.

2019 AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS TOP NOMINATED ARTISTS CHART FACTS:

Post Malone

Two-time American Music Award winner Post Malone comes into the 2019 AMAs with a field-leading seven nominations – and it’s no wonder, as he’s chalked up what could be considered his biggest year yet in music. 

2019 started off with his third No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)” with Swae Lee, and he followed it up with four more top 10s. Further, his third album, Hollywood’s Bleeding, stormed in atop the Billboard 200 chart, giving the artist his second No. 1. Concurrent with the album’s bow at No. 1, all 17 of the set’s songs debuted on the Hot 100 chart.

Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande, a current six-time American Music Award nominee this year, wasted no time in the past year. The pop superstar’s thank u, next album debuted at No. 1 less than six months after her last album, Sweetener, started at No. 1 – the shortest gap between new No. 1 albums by a female artist since 1975. 

Further, when thank u, next charged in at No. 1, it broke the record for the largest streaming week ever earned for a pop album, according to Nielsen Music. The three-time AMA winner collected her first two No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with thank u, next’s title track, and its follow-up hit, “7 Rings.”  

Billie Eilish

It was a big year on the charts for six-time 2019 American Music Award nominee Billie Eilish. The 17-year old singer-songwriter debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and logged a smash No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 with the set’s breakout hit Bad Guy. 

When We All Fall Asleep has collected more than 2 billion on-demand audio streams for its songs in the U.S., including a half-billion alone for “Bad Guy.” Also impressive: when “Bad Guy” hit No. 1 on the Alternative Songs airplay chart, it followed her previous No. 1, “Bury a Friend,” which made Eilish only the third woman to score multiple No. 1s in the 30-plus year history of the chart.

Lil Nas X

Five-time American Music Award nominee Lil Nas X re-wrote the chart history books in 2019, as his ubiquitous single “Old Town Road” broke the long-standing record for the most weeks at No. 1 in the 60-plus-year history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Fueled by the runaway popularity of the song’s remix featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, the song spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on the tally, surpassing the previous record-holders, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito,” featuring Justin Bieber, and Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s “One Sweet Day,” each with 16 weeks at No. 1. 

But Lil Nas X didn’t stop there – he followed “Old Town” with another top 10 hit, “Panini,” and a debut EP, 7, which opened at No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Taylor Swift

23-time American Music Award winner Taylor Swift had another super-sized year on the charts, thanks to the 2019 five-time nominee’s massive album Lover and its singles. The set blasted in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, securing the superstar her sixth No. 1 on the list. Further, when it launched at No. 1, it did so with the biggest week earned by an album since her own last release, reputation, in 2017. 

The Lover era kicked off with its first single, “ME!,” featuring Brendon Urie, notching Swift her 23rd top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. She then followed it up with two more top 10s so far, her 24th and 25th total, “You Need to Calm Down” and the album’s title track.

Billy Ray Cyrus

Two-time American Music Award winner Billy Ray Cyrus returned to the top of the Billboard charts in a major way in 2019, thanks to an unlikely collaboration: his teaming with Lil Nas X on a remix of the enormous hit “Old Town Road.” 

The tune spent a record 19 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and brought 2019 four-time AMA nominee Cyrus back to the chart’s top 10 for the first time since 1992, when his debut hit “Achy Breaky Heart” reached No. 4.

Ella Mai

Four-time American Music Award nominee Ella Mai broke through in mid-2018 with her chart-dominating hit “Boo’d Up,” which spent 13 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart. 

The singer-songwriter followed it up with a string of further hits on the list, including “Trip” (No. 1 for 14 weeks) and “Shot Clock” (No. 3). Plus, her self-titled full-length album arrived and spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Top R&B Albums chart, while also hitting No. 5 on the Billboard 200.

Khalid

Khalid made waves on the charts in 2019, as the American Music Award-winner landed his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart with Free Spirit, and his highest charting single as a lead artist on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Talk” (peaking at No. 3). 

With Free Spirit, the singer-songwriter also logged the first R&B album to top the Billboard 200 in nearly a year, and scored one of the largest streaming weeks ever for an R&B album, according to Nielsen Music. “Talk” also spent 18 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot R&B Songs chart – one of over a dozen top 20-charting hits in 2019 for the current four-time AMA nominee.

The complete list of nominations for the 2019 American Music Awards is below.

The “2019 American Music Awards” is produced by dick clark productions. Barry Adelman and Mark Bracco are Executive Producers. Larry Klein is Producer.

2019 AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS NOMINEES

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Drake

Ariana Grande

Halsey

Post Malone

Taylor Swift

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Luke Combs

Billie Eilish

Lil Nas X

Lizzo

Ella Mai

COLLABORATION OF THE YEAR

Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper “Shallow”

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus “Old Town Road”

Marshmello & Bastille “Happier”

Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello “Señorita” 

Post Malone & Swae Lee “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)”

TOUR OF THE YEAR

BTS

Ariana Grande

Elton John

P!nk

Ed Sheeran

FAVORITE MUSIC VIDEO

Billie Eilish “bad guy”

Ariana Grande “7 rings”

Halsey “Without Me”

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus “Old Town Road”

Taylor Swift “You Need to Calm Down”

FAVORITE SOCIAL ARTIST

BTS

Billie Eilish

EXO

Ariana Grande

Shawn Mendes

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST – POP/ROCK 

Drake

Khalid

Post Malone

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST – POP/ROCK 

Billie Eilish

Ariana Grande

Taylor Swift

FAVORITE DUO OR GROUP – POP/ROCK 

BTS

Jonas Brothers

Panic! At The Disco

FAVORITE ALBUM – POP/ROCK 

Billie Eilish “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”

Ariana Grande “thank u, next”

Taylor Swift “Lover”

FAVORITE SONG – POP/ROCK

Halsey “Without Me”

Jonas Brothers “Sucker”

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus “Old Town Road”

Panic! At The Disco “High Hopes”

Post Malone & Swae Lee “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)”

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST – COUNTRY 

Kane Brown

Luke Combs

Thomas Rhett

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST – COUNTRY 

Kelsea Ballerini

Maren Morris

Carrie Underwood

FAVORITE DUO or GROUP – COUNTRY 

Dan + Shay

Florida Georgia Line

Old Dominion

FAVORITE ALBUM – COUNTRY 

Kane Brown “Experiment”

Dan + Shay “Dan + Shay”

Carrie Underwood “Cry Pretty”

FAVORITE SONG - COUNTRY 

Luke Combs “Beautiful Crazy”

Dan + Shay “Speechless”

Blake Shelton “God’s Country”

FAVORITE ARTIST – RAP/HIP-HOP 

Cardi B

Drake

Post Malone

FAVORITE ALBUM – RAP/HIP-HOP 

Meek Mill “Championships”

Post Malone “Hollywood’s Bleeding”

Travis Scott “Astroworld”

FAVORITE SONG – RAP/HIP-HOP 

Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus “Old Town Road”

Post Malone “Wow.”

Travis Scott “SICKO MODE”

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST – SOUL/R&B 

Chris Brown

Khalid

Bruno Mars

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST – SOUL/R&B 

Beyoncé

Lizzo

Ella Mai

FAVORITE ALBUM – SOUL/R&B 

Chris Brown “Indigo”

Khalid “Free Spirit”

Ella Mai “Ella Mai”

FAVORITE SONG – SOUL/R&B

Khalid “Talk”

Lizzo “Juice”

Ella Mai “Trip”

FAVORITE ARTIST - ALTERNATIVE ROCK

Billie Eilish

Imagine Dragons

Panic! At The Disco

FAVORITE ARTIST - ADULT CONTEMPORARY

Maroon 5

P!nk

Taylor Swift

FAVORITE ARTIST - LATIN 

Bad Bunny

J Balvin

Ozuna

FAVORITE ARTIST - CONTEMPORARY INSPIRATIONAL

Lauren Daigle

for KING & COUNTRY

MercyMe

FAVORITE ARTIST - ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC (EDM)

Avicii

Marshmello

The Chainsmokers

FAVORITE SOUNDTRACK

“A Star is Born” by Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper

“Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”