A first-time nominee for the American Music Awards, Olivia Rodrigo has something to be proud of. Her seven nominations are the most among the 2021 nominees, organizers announced Thursday. She is up for several of the night’s biggest awards, including artist of the year and new artist of the year.
Among the other nominees, The Weeknd leads with six nominations. Bad Bunny, Doja Cat, and Giveon follow closely behind with five nominations each. Live coverage of the American Music Awards will be from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 21 at 8 PM EST/PST on ABC. American Music Awards will also stream next day on Hulu. For the first time, fans can vote for all AMA categories on TikTok by searching for “AMAs” in-app.
The new categories on the American Music Awards this year include Favorite Trending Song, which features nominees from TikTok based on the year’s most viral music, Favorite Gospel Artist, as well as Favorite Latin Duo or Group, which completes the expansion of Latin categories last year.
Billboard’s charts reflect key fan interactions, including streaming, album sales, song sales, and radio airplay, which are taken into consideration when determining American Music Awards nominees. Billboard and its data partner MRC Data track these measurements over the time period September 25, 2020, to September 23, 2021. Winners of the American Music Awards are determined by fans solely.
MRC Live & Alternative and Jesse Collins Entertainment are producing the 2021 American Music Awards. Xfinity is the show’s sponsor. As for the Latin categories, the Reggaeton superstar snags two nominations for Favorite Latin Album and New Artist of the Year. Doja Cat, is recognized in Favorite Female R&B Artist and Favorite R&B Album, among others.
First-time nominee Giveon received multiple nominations. This includes New Artist of the Year, Favorite Male R&B Artist, and Collaboration of the Year for his hit song with Justin Bieber, “Peaches”. Ariana Grande, BTS, Drake, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd are among the nominees for the American Music Awards’ Artist of the Year award. Swift holds the record for the most wins in this category with six, as well as the most AMA wins in history with 32.
There is an asterisk next to Morgan Wallen’s two nominations for this year’s American Music Awards.
“Morgan Wallen is a nominee this year based on charting,” reads a statement attributed to MRC Live & Alternative. “As his conduct does not align with our core values, we will not be including him on the show in any capacity (performing, presenting, accepting).” reads the official statement by the producers. The statement implies that they’re leaving the door open, but remain unsatisfied with the statements the country superstar has made since he was caught saying the N-word on video in March.
You can find the full list of nominees here.