Justin Bieber Wins Big at the AMAs; Everyone Else Tunes Out

Justin Bieber performing 'Pray' at the 2010 AMAs.  Photo by Kevin Mazur for WireImage.com

The American Music Awards is not exactly the most prestigious awards show out there. All categories are voted by the public, but the show serves as a sample platter of the stuff that’s passing off as music on radio everywhere. If there was any redeeming qualities to this year’s award ceremony, it’s that it knows what people really want: artists playing the hits. Most of them delivered, but whether they served anything tasty is up for debate.

Rihanna opened with what would become a prevalent theme during the whole show: a medley of sorts. From her take on ‘Love The Way You Lie (Part Two)’ to her latests hits ‘What’s My Name’, and ‘Only Girl (In The World)’, RiRi showed everyone why she’s the best comeback story of the year. Returning to a more lighter and entertaining mode, Rihanna danced her butt off and sang her heart out. The live vocals were OK, but her charisma and her energy were the saving graces of the show.

Enrique Iglesias managed to keep the energy pumping with a performance of ‘Tonight’ and ‘I Like It’ featuring a marching band, disco beats, and Pitbull. P!nk managed to almost steal the show with a great performace of ‘Raise Your Glass’, considering she’s pregnant. But the best was, surprisingly, saved for last when the Backstreet Boys teamed up with New Kids On The Block for, what else, a medley of their greatest hits. The mash-up of ‘Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)’ with ‘Step By Step’ and other assorted hits proved that even though boy bands are no longer the norm, they will certainly never disappear thanks to their rabid fans: Tween Girls.

New Kids on The Block & Backstreet Boys team up at the 2010 AMAs.  Photo by Kevin Mazur for WireImage.com

In fact, a lot of the acts at the AMAs where certainly booked specifically to bolster female viewership. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but when the artist line up includes Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Usher, and Ne-Yo to name a few, you know that the airwaves are being ruled by tween girls. Which is why Justin Bieber managed to win 3 awards, including Breakthrough Artist, and Album of the Year. The Canadian born Bieber, who seemed at loss for words, thanked God, his fans, and his mentor Usher (but not in that order) and nervously dedicated an award to the late Michael Jackson, “because without [him], none of us would be here.” (HUH?)

Katy Perry lights up some 'Fireworks' at the 2010 AMAs.  Photo by Kevin Winter for Getty Images.

If you managed to stay awake through some of the other so-so performances, like Kid Rock and Diddy-Dirty Money (you read right) then you were also treated to two out of this world acts: The Black Eyed Peas systematic destruction of the classic ‘Time of My Life’ sampled in their techno single ‘The Time (Dirty Bit)’, and Ke$ha’s ‘Take It Off/We R Who We R’. Lady GaGa may have been missing from the whole thing, but they certainly brought the crazy front and center! Don’t get us started with Katy Perry and her ‘Fireworks’, which either fizzled due to the low sounding live vocals, or was about to torch the stage with actual fireworks.

And now for some of the things we found completely annoying:
Chrysler ads for the Chevy Cruze featuring Ne-Yo were so tacky, they made you long for an American Idol to pop up in one of their contrived ads for Ford, Old Navy and their Gobblepalooza ads featuring dancers pretending to be turkeys, and the blatant rip-off by T-Mobile of the Mac Vs. PC ads to promote their 4G Network smartphone. 

Go Back to Jersey! Bon Jovi perform at the 2010 AMAs.  Photo by Kevin Winter for Getty Images.

The worst of the show included a good song turned bland by Christina Aguilera to promote Burlesque ironically called ‘Express’. Her dancers were certainly more energetic, but Aguilera was out of her game, probably due to her impending divorce. Santana and Gavin Rossdale proved to be a terrible match for their duet of ‘Bang a Gong (Get It On)’. While certainly Santana is one the best guitarists in the world, Rossdale sounded terrible and exasperated: it was like bad karaoke. But nothing could top the cheesefest brought on by no other than Bon Jovi. It’s certainly sad to see a band sound so bland and repetitive, and dare we say, boring. And when the most interesting thing that happens during the show is the cheap special effects, as in the lightning coming out of Richie Sambora’s guitar or Tico Torres’s drums, it’s proof that Bon Jovi have themselves to blame for giving their band a bad name.

Did booking all these acts actually bolster ratings? According to The New York Post, this year’s awards was the lowest-rated in AMA history. Which means that while the Tweens of America certainly crowned Justin Bieber as their current King of Pop, not a lot of people actually cared to watch.

Did you watch the American Music Awards? Are you hoping that Train finally gives up singing the groan-inducing ‘Hey, Soul Sister’? Is anybody listening to radio anymore?