Philippines well-represented’ and other notes on the 2026 American Music Awards

May 28 ------ The 2026 American Music Awards was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas last Monday evening, May 25. It was Memorial Day, a big holiday in the US of A and veterans were justly honored during the show.

Host was Queen Latifah, who first did the honors 31 years ago before she became an award-winning actress and star of music, films and television. Busta Rimes was there. Also Ludacris, Hootie and the Blowfish, whose frontman Darius Rucker received the Veteran Voice Award.

For Lifetime Achievement, the AMAs brought out Billy Idol, the silver-haired punk rock veteran of 50 years. He can still do his trademark rebel yell and easily conquered the stage with his hits Eyes without a Face and Dancing with Myself.

The AMAs is now 52 years old. It was nice that cable channel Hits TV aired the whole presentation live hereabouts on Tuesday morning. BTS, still on the comeback mode, was the big winner of the evening. The boys from South Korea brought home the Song of the Summer trophy for their single Swim from their latest album “Arirang,” the Best Male K-Pop Artist and the biggest plum of the night, the Artist of the Year Award.

BTS also opened the show via satellite with their Hooligan, which despite lots of production gimmickry came off lackluster. Truth to tell, the over 40-year-old New Kids on the Block came off oozing with more star power when they appeared to perform You Got It (The Right Stuff). Take note, Jordan, Donnie, Jonathan, Joey and Danny are still as sexy and spritely as ever.

Of course, there was no way that Golden by the Singing Voices of HUNTR/X from “KPop Demon Hunters” was going to miss out on getting an AMA. And they did so by winning four trophies, as Best Pop Song, Best Vocal Performance and as Song of the Year. Then “KPop Demon Hunters” was named Best Soundtrack. K-pop was indeed the dominant force at the AMA this year but no need for us to worry because the Philippines was also well represented. Coincidentally, all of them sent out the message, “Remember your roots.”

There was Sophia Laforteza, leader of the girl group KATSEYE. They won for Best New Artist and she ended their acceptance speech with a sweet, “Maraming, maraming salamat.” KATSEYE also won as Breakthrough Pop Artist while the winner for Best Video was their big hit Gnarly. There was also Nicole Scherzinger who debuted a trio edition of the Pussy Cat Dolls, the girl group with which she began her career during the early ‘80s. Along with Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt, she danced and sang to their early hits. Again, we heard that very sexy, “Don’t cha wish….”

And talking about throwbacks. One that won the Best Throwback Song of the year was Rock That Body by the Black Eyed Peas. And the members of the iconic group all showed up to receive the award. The reclusive Fergie along with will.i.am., Taboo and the Pampanga-raised Apl.de.ap. To cap off the Pinoy AMA harvest, Bruno Mars was named Best R&B Artist, his latest hit I Just Might was named Best R&B Song and his “The Romantic” won for Best R&B Album.

By the way, AMA favorite and perennial winner Taylor Swift, who topped the nominations with eight nods, did not win in any category. Disappointing, but it should not really matter as she already has 40 of those trophies at home. Anyway, Swifties, as her fandom is called, can count on a grand comeback from Taylor after defeats such as these. She always returns to the top in a big way.

Source: philstar.com