Biggest Fodder For Thinkpieces: It’s unclear who told Katy Perry it was a good idea to open the show in full Memoirs of a Geisha garb, but her appearance wearing a kimono with paper umbrellas, cherry trees and a temple backdrop to sing “Unconditionally” got the ball rolling.
Least Surprising Win: Justin Timberlake took the title for Favorite Pop/Rock Singer from a field that included only Bruno Mars and Robin Thicke. It was the musical equivalent of saying that out of rice cakes, rice and a chocolate ice cream sundae, you prefer the ice cream.
Biggest Squee: When the lights rose on One Direction and Harry Styles tried to sing the opening bars to “Story of My Life” (a.k.a. the 1D song that sounds like Mumford and Sons) the squees of the audience rose and rose until dogs across America started to howl.
Biggest Voice, Smallest Package: Ariana Grande — a.k.a. Mini-Mariah Carey — made her awards show debut with an unexpectedly understated performance of her song “Tattooed Heart” that was pretty darn enjoyable.
Best Costume Choice: Pitbull left off his hosting duties long enough to perform his electro-country dance hit “Timber” with Ke$ha. The women on stage were dressed in a vague cowboys-and-Indians theme while Pitbull still wore his granny pantsuit.
Most Cognitive Dissonance-Inducing Presenter: Bill Maher part of trio that presented the Icon Award to Rihanna. Read that again: Bill Maher presented the Icon Award to Rihanna. We can only assume that Rihanna is a big fan of Real Time.
Most Jay-Z Moment: “It’s with great honor and incredible pride that I present you with this first-ever AMA icon award.” — Jay-Z to Rihanna via Skype from his couch, because he’s Jay-Z and is allowed to phone it in.
Sweetest Moment: Rihanna’s mom presented the actual award to Riri, telling her little girl how proud she is of her accomplishments.
Best Off-Camera Moment: R. Kelly got to sit between Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga at the awards show. Making us all jealz of Kellz.
The Best Moment Of the Night: Lady Gaga and R. Kelly performed their hit song, “Do What U Want,” with a backdrop that was supposed to be the White House. R. Kelly played the president, with Gaga as his mistress. They had teased this performance with their rehearsal on Saturday Night Live, but the actual performance was incredible: Lady Gaga played secretary Marilyn Monroe to R. Kelly’s JFK complete with dozens of dancing Marilyns and Kellz in a real life meets Scandal dance number.
I think the reason people liked Gaga's performance so much was 'cause it was fun. Like, no "artsy" stuff and the message was incredibly easy to get. Put all that on top of great vocals, choreo, and energy, and you've got a winning formula.
I think the reason people liked Gaga's performance so much was 'cause it was fun. Like, no "artsy" stuff and the message was incredibly easy to get. Put all that on top of great vocals, choreo, and energy, and you've got a winning formula.
Gags !