Watch: American Music Awards Performances- Kanye, Beyonce, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Ne-Yo, Mariah
The American Music Awards took place last night and featured some great performances by music A-listers. Here are a few of the performances in no particular order.
Kanye West performed “Heartless” . I love the stage set and Kanye brought a lot of intensity and emotion to his performance. I know a lot of people aren’t feeling the auto-tuner, but the effect was slightly subtle and didn’t drown out Kanye’s distinct delivery. Good performance by Mr. West.
Beyonce performed “Single Ladies”. This is pretty much the same performance from Saturday Night Live, but she did a great job. Her outfit was cute and she was working the hell out of that ponytail. I can’t wait to see what she does for the other songs on her album. She was filming a video for “Diva” this weekend so it’s only a matter of time before she starts performing it live.
Rihanna performed “Rehab” and she did an excellent job. I’ve been saying for 8 months now that this chick has more talent than she is given credit for and she showed a glimpse into how much she has grown vocally in her performance. I’m sure there will still be people who will shrug and say she is wack, but you can’t deny that she hit and held some impressive notes. I loved her performance and she looked stunning as usual.
Alicia Keys performed “Superwoman” and brought out Queen Latifah and Katherine Battle. Alicia sounded great, Queen was tight but the AMA needed to get their sh!t together messing up her mic, and Katherine’s voice was beautiful. One thing that totally sucked about the AMAs is their videography. Apparently they lost sight of the fact that there are millions of people watching at home, so they cut off stage production elements that were intended to enhance the performances. This performance exemplified that when they didn’t have any clear shots with the photo montage in the background. You could that they were showing pictures of people but they were cut off 85% of the time. But anyway, the montage was a nice gesture from the always gracious Alicia Keys. It was a great way to close out the show with an uplifting performance and a (cut off) shot of our next First Lady.
Ne-Yo performed “Closer” and “Miss Independent”. Ne-Yo looked quite dapper and I loved the classic and elegant throwback production. I think he forgot background singers though which would’ve made performance more seamless. Overall though, solid, lively, good performance.
Mariah Carey performed her new single “I Stay In Love”. It seems like she is just on cruise control these days..not really tripping or putting much effort forth, but there were some shining moments in this performance towards the end. It would be nice to see that same hunger that she had with the Emancipation of Mimi album in her again, but this was a solid if not stellar performance. Oh yeah and I don’t know if Nick helping her down the stairs made him seem like a dotting husband or a servant, but that was quite nice of him.
What do you guys think of the performances? Who did you like? Who should’ve stayed at home?
Posted by Reecie
wow. loved that rihanna performance. it was great, though i was never one to doubt her talent. rehab is my favorite song from her right now, so it was nice to hear it and so well. her new goth-y-ish style isn’t bad either. ;D
i’ll watch the rest of the performances later, but none of those songs interest me too much.
Even though a lot of people think Kanye is too cocky(including myself) you have to respect the way he delivers - if you support his music is money well spent.
Beyonce’s performance is the best I’ve seen for single ladies so far - it was absolutely full of energy. I must say I’ve heard this song so much it is becoming annoying however the fact that Beyonce is such a performer it always strikes my interest to watch her. She is indeed a great performer. She is very confident and you could just see her selling it to the crowd.
Rhianna - I love, love, love the look and the jeweled eye patch. The stage was nice but her performance was still not up to par. However I liked the way she got into the last part there were some sparks there and the vocals were on point.
I missed it, but woke up this morning, heard that alicia keys performed and knew you all would have he recap. THAT just made my day. I’ve been waiting to see the Queen rap again, and since last year’s American Music Awards Alicia Keys has introduced some of the best awards show performances ever, from the reggae all stars to the girl groups to this.
I’ll be back later to comment on the other stuff, but I will also say now that I will give Rihanna a thumbs up for this…I prefer this to the Fashion Rocks performance. You’re not the only person who has said she gives a good live performance, and her performance videos always sound better than her cd tracks to me. Why doesnt she release a live cd? That may give her a bit of umph.
Kanye, was fine, nothing to write home about. Nice stage set up.
Beyonce disappointed me. B/C like you said Reecie this was the exact same performance from Saturday Night Live..and for an award show you need to step it up, not perform the same thing and the same way you did at some other late night tv show.
Rihanna, good to see her putting forth the effort vocally to try something different that people don’t hear often from Rihanna. I was proud of her, I wasn’t a fan of the eye patch..it was cute, but I just didnt get it.
Alicia Keys, had a solid performance. And it was good to see Queen Latifah up there because she’s more of an actor these days than a musician.
Neyo, I didnt watch..I have my own personal issues against Neyo, so I didnt even entertain the idea of watching it last night or even now.
Mariah, it’s amazing that she’s been in the game this long, but you still have to talk about her lack of stage prescence. You would think she would have it down by now. If she had a stand up mike it might’ve looked better to me, but for some reason I just found her performance slightly awkward.
Overall it was a good award show. They kept it fast pace. The award/then performance combination helped keep it entertaining. They kind of just got to the point and I think that was a smart idea, especially if they were trying to keep the viewers at home watching.
Queen’s part was great, I was just so mad that her mic was off for the first 20 seconds since she was obviously saying something about Obama. I’m going to chop that up to incompetence on the producer’s part, but still…it deflated a great moment.
Alicia Keys is one of the few artists who is really innovative with her performances. You never know who she is going to bring out or how she is going to switch it up. I think it’s admirable that she doesn’t always have to be center of attention and she genuinely gives props to other artists who wouldn’t otherwise get as much shine.
Kanye West - Is a great performer and I enjoyed his performance.
Beyonce - She could had done a little bit more enhance the performance. I’m diappointed with her double album. One reason I’m disappointed with it because I was expecting each disc to have at least twelve songs.
Rihanna - The problem I have with Rehab is that they pretty much redid the beat to What Goes Around. I guess once you get pass that part the song is easier to enjoy. I liked her performance.
Alicia Keys - Did a good job with her performance. Latifah added soem great stuff to the performance.
Neyo - I finally got his new album and I enjoyed it. One problem I have with Neyo is that his music is always sounding the same and bland. I have a feeling that his new album is similar to his last two.
Mariah Carey isn’t bringing it anymore with her live performances so I didn’t bother watching her.
Kayne bored me…I liked the stage more than his performance
Beyonce… I don’t really like this song sounds with her band and I agree..she does the same performance every time..gets a little old
Rihanna..bored me as well…her performance wasn’t exciting enough for me and the notes she hit were clear but they weren’t anything spectacular either…I don’t think her register is that high.. I felt like her outfit was more exciting than her performance
Keys…cool performance..but I don’t think I could sit through a whole concert of hers
Ne-Yo… The woman in the red dress KILLED IT…very entertaining but I think he sounds better recorded than live
Mariah..wasn’t interested
Thanks for posting…I don’t watch award shows anymore so I miss out on all the performance:)
Um, did we see the same Rihanna performance? You KNOW she would’ve got booed off the Apollo with that performance. Damn, the standards are SO low now.
Mariah Carey let me down…i already dont like her…but towards the end i thought she was going to give it to me but she just played it safe. Bye-Bye Mi Mi..Hello Leona.
Neyo…great performance as usual..but really, dont perform cCoser anymore
Alicia Keys…i am tired of her and this piano…like really…her performance was cute tho but like…i just want to see her without the piano
Beyonce……great full of energy and that damned PONYTAIL!! i live…she could have switched it up a lil but i mean how? its a dance video so there really isnt much she can change…btw catch how she stood the ponytail up at the very end.
Rihanna…..i dont like her, i am not a fan of her music. but this performance had me on the edge of my seat. that note she held was on point and she even grunted/groweld out a few notes too which shocked me. I respect her now.
Kanye…..im over him and is big Ego. My sympathy goes to him in regards to his mother, but we’re not going to baby u up and let u take out ur frustrations on the music industry. that’s what therapy is for
btw..is it me or did Miley Cyrus live for the gurls in her performance? yes, they were voguing lol i like her a lil now…
i think the best performance of the night was the christina aguileras one. She rocked, the others were insignificant. they didnt reach christinas foot
*Side note..Pussycat dolls, Wow!! For a moment I had to press mute b/c I felt embarrassed for them. Nicole messed up some notes and i’m not sure if it was b/c she had trouble getting out the jacket or what..but if that was the case I’m sure someone during the fitting for their performance knew their jackets were to tight. I felt bad cuz I actually like that group, there new album is horrible, but I like them. Alright I’m done…
I knew i could count on yall 2 recap because i missed Ne-Yo performance. I just watched it and it was great .
MARIAH IS FANTASTIC,YEA I DO ADMIT SHE DIDN’T GIVE IT HER ALL…SHE LOOKED BOTHER A LITTLE…BUT MARIAH CAN DO NO WRONG..LEONA DONT GOT NOTHINING ON MARIAH
xtina tore that shit up! consumate performer.
the best performances was Ne-yo, Mariah, Rhianna, and Kanye all the way! Rihanna looked really Hot as usual! she was not only one of the best performers but she looked the prettiest and hottest, hands down. She looked good with her hubby CB.
FYI: NE-YO MUSIC IS NOT BLAND!!! its unique and original unlike other so-called “great’” artists, lets just say, like justin!
And yaaa, Ne-yo is still my number one!!!!!!!
I have to agree with Ja on this one…the standards for performances have decreased drastically. I was just watching old TLC performances and they sung and danced the whole way through. Idk man
Rihanna is the best! She always looks soooo good and she sounded awesome as usual! I loved her the best everyone else was good but Rihanna amazed me!
I thought Alicia Keys had the BEST performance HANDS DOWN! It was Just AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!