Recap: American Music Awards 2015, The Cool and the Weird

The 43rd annual The American Music Awards took flight Sunday night at the  Los Angeles Microsoft Theatre – under the vibrant tutelage of Jennifer Lopez who got things rolling by inducing the energetic throngs of jungle fever mixed with energetic splashes of a medley of hits that featured Nicki Minaj’s much-recycled Anaconda and Lopez’s enduring Waiting for Tonight.

The performance seemed to try to convey some of what we could expect if we were front, row and center in Vegas taking her ongoing residency.

It was an impressive showing and even caught the eye of ex-beau, P. Diddy who couldn’t help but reference how dope she was as he took the stage to highlight the Collaboration of the Year.

The rest of the show was pretty much standard fare with the fun lumped in with the awkwardly contrived.

The make out session both Meghan Trainor and Charlie Puth indulged in after reveling us with a so-so duet, Marvin Gaye – that was aimed to celebrate the late iconic singer was both painful and draining to watch. Clearly these two have no sparks between whatsoever which the moment even more confusing.

But at least we had Demi Lovato to save the night. Her performance of her delightful hit single Confident was perfectly generous in delivery and the references to the musical Chicago as well as the goth-chic getup didn’t hurt either.

Other notable performances included The Weeknd who with the dramatic assistance of a well-lit stage belted out the unstoppable hit, The Hills. Justin Bieber also took to the stage and proved once again why his star power remains secure – for now anyway. Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin did his best but unfortunately contribution to their latest offering, Adventures of a Lifetime was quite “trippy” and not in a good way. Both Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande tried a little too hard to demonstrate effortless sex appeal and Gwen Stefani reduced herself to a puddle of her former self while sharing the very affecting and depressing self-imposed theme song, Used to Love You.

The highlight of the night was definitely the segment dedicated to the City of Lights that brought back the voice of the century – Celine Dion who stunned the crowd with Edith Piaf’s Hymne a l’amour after an equally moving introduction by actor Jared Leto.

All in all – it was night like all the other with a little bit of everything coming together for the sake of entertainment.

The big winners of the night were as predictable a it gets – Taylor Swift lived up to her title as America’s  Sweetheart by taking home Song of the Year for Blank Space. The Weeknd walked away with the Favorite Male Artist trophy and Nicki Minaj gladly accepted her award for Favorite Album – Rap/Hip-Hop and didn’t exit the spotlight without dropping some word of wisdom that was delivered through a nicely formulated speech.

The American Music Awards is done and so are we – till next year America!

Click here for a complete list of winners.