Okay the title "American Music Awards 2018" is pretty self-explanatory I guess. Here we have one of the biggest American award shows of the year and to be more precise the 2018 edition. If you know (music) awards shows, then you probably also aware of some of the biggest problems these have these days. This one here really brings them all. One, maybe the worst, example is that they are stuffed mith mediocre stage performances, if lucky, usually they are bad instead of mediocre, instead of focusing on the awards. This one here perfectly fits this description. I think it took approximately 20 minutes until the first award was presented. These 20 minutes included a bizarre introduction of the guy who runs the show informing us that he will do without superlatives when telling us whatg is going to happen because the show itself will be amazing enough. Not quite. Then a tolerable Taylor Swift performance followed and eventually host Tracee Ellis Ross showed up. Well, I guess the other reviewer is perfectly right about her. She was unbearable as host. Unfunny as it gets. Bad material, and incredibly forced in her delivery. Painful to watch. Also with the success she may have on the small screen, I still find it baffling how she is picked to host the American Music Awards. Would she ever be close to this nod without who her mother is? Highly unlikely. I guess they picked her to immediately avoid criticism when it comes to ignoring African American performers. She is not even a musician really. Or I don't know, at least not a successful one. And she certainly has not hosted anything meaningful ever, really an enigma what she was doing here. So no surprise, in her way too much screen time she made it absolutely clear that she had no business hosting this event. Now the only thing you could maybe say in her favor is that her material was also extremely weak. Sucks to see so many writers and directors (including Glenn Weiss as always) being credited here and the outcome is such a mess. Another fine example of how they constantly mess up is thatg here we get to see all the winners that weren't featured in the show during airtime when the show ends as something like the closing credit winners. It is a freakin' awards show guys. Show everybody who gets a trophy instead of continously bad singing and autotune. Especially if you stretch the show already to 2 hours 20 minutes, actually 3 hours with commercials. Unreal how eveything here went wrong.
Now as for the actual heart of the show, the winners, I cannot say anything positive either. Taylor Swift won a lot and she has been in a slump for years when it comes to her music. No need to award her any further. Post Malone, Cardi B and several other winners really prove that American music is not at its best at this point. The joke with pre-malone etc. was terribly cringey. And with Rihanna constantly winning R&B-trophies while not having come up with a quality song in years says it all. One of the better moments was Bohemian Rhapsody obviously, but this was just due to how great Queen and their trademark song are. The Panic! at the Disco performance was nothing special either. And what was up with those announcing the winners. What in God's name is Macaulay Culkin doing at a music awards show? Or Vanessa Hudgens. She's a nice girl, no doubt about it, but seriously? Even the inclusion of (then not yet) Oscar winner Rami Malek was bizarre to say the least. He also has no conection with music other than playing Mercury, so he announces the Queen tribute. Or the Aretha Franklin tribute at the end just a few months after her death. It wasn't horrible, but nowhere near what she would have deserved. Also no idea what categories like "Favorite Social Artist" (with the Korean kids winning of course) are doing at the American Music Awards. Actually, this ceremony was not 1% worthy of being called American Music Awards. It was a mess, content-wise and structure-wise and the producers should apologize to the public for what they did that night and put the ceremony on temporary hold until they are at least capable of producing a watchable awards show. Not a disaster like this one here. Of course, the expected political message was not missing either when they called upon their viewers to vote during the mid-term elections was it I think. You can imagine very well also what direction they want people to vote. Probably 90% of those present and 50% of those watching on the screen would give their vote to Ed Sheeran, which shows the level this is at. Stupid entertainment for the simple-minded. This celebration is one where you clearly want to keep your distance. nd not just one meter. Actually go for 100 meters because that's how big of a mess it was. Highly not recommended, not even to awards show lovers like myself. Oh yeah Cabello's Havana is as catchy as ever (even if obviously it does not require a great deal of range) and she's a bit of cutie, so I can say at least one thing somewhat positive.
Now as for the actual heart of the show, the winners, I cannot say anything positive either. Taylor Swift won a lot and she has been in a slump for years when it comes to her music. No need to award her any further. Post Malone, Cardi B and several other winners really prove that American music is not at its best at this point. The joke with pre-malone etc. was terribly cringey. And with Rihanna constantly winning R&B-trophies while not having come up with a quality song in years says it all. One of the better moments was Bohemian Rhapsody obviously, but this was just due to how great Queen and their trademark song are. The Panic! at the Disco performance was nothing special either. And what was up with those announcing the winners. What in God's name is Macaulay Culkin doing at a music awards show? Or Vanessa Hudgens. She's a nice girl, no doubt about it, but seriously? Even the inclusion of (then not yet) Oscar winner Rami Malek was bizarre to say the least. He also has no conection with music other than playing Mercury, so he announces the Queen tribute. Or the Aretha Franklin tribute at the end just a few months after her death. It wasn't horrible, but nowhere near what she would have deserved. Also no idea what categories like "Favorite Social Artist" (with the Korean kids winning of course) are doing at the American Music Awards. Actually, this ceremony was not 1% worthy of being called American Music Awards. It was a mess, content-wise and structure-wise and the producers should apologize to the public for what they did that night and put the ceremony on temporary hold until they are at least capable of producing a watchable awards show. Not a disaster like this one here. Of course, the expected political message was not missing either when they called upon their viewers to vote during the mid-term elections was it I think. You can imagine very well also what direction they want people to vote. Probably 90% of those present and 50% of those watching on the screen would give their vote to Ed Sheeran, which shows the level this is at. Stupid entertainment for the simple-minded. This celebration is one where you clearly want to keep your distance. nd not just one meter. Actually go for 100 meters because that's how big of a mess it was. Highly not recommended, not even to awards show lovers like myself. Oh yeah Cabello's Havana is as catchy as ever (even if obviously it does not require a great deal of range) and she's a bit of cutie, so I can say at least one thing somewhat positive.
