American Music Awards guests talk ‘Hamilton’ and Pence

Those who tune in to the 2016 AMAs, which will be hosted by model Gigi Hadid and comedian Jay Pharoah, will be treated to many performances between the acceptance speeches. The event will be aired at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on ABC.

It was the most overt reference to the November 8 U.S. presidential elections at the three-hour awards show where the focus was otherwise mostly on music.

Ariana Grande was shaking onstage as she collected artist of the year at the fan-voted show, beating Adele, Rihanna, Carrie Underwood and Bieber.

Is Selena Gomez at war with Taylor Swift over Justin Bieber?

But despite a chart-topping album, “Views”, that this year became the first to earn one billion streams on Apple Music, the “Hotline Bling” singer has already been knocked out of the running for Sunday’s top prize – artist of the year. It was a big win for Gomez in so many ways, and Selena Gomez’s speech at the AMAs included so many fearless, brilliant quotes – but none more powerful than this: “If you are broken, you do not have to stay broken”.

His 2016 nominations include video of the year, favorite male artist – pop/rock, favorite album – pop/rock, favorite song – pop/rock and the top honor, artist of the year.

A sentimental moment came when Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, took the stage to accept the award for “Best Soundtrack” for “Purple Rain” on behalf of her brother.

Bruno Mars kicked off the AMAs with some serious uptown funk: He sang his groovy hit, “24K Magic”, backed by his band who matched his slick, upbeat dance moves. Ariana Grande continued to be the one saving grace of this sort of show; she sounded excellent as always with Nicki Minaj on “Side to Side”.

Sting John Legend – “Love Me Now”. The lineup of performers is pretty diverse, and includes everyone from Fifth Harmony to the legendary Green Day.

New Artist of the Year Un-leashed by T-Mobile nominees are Alessia Cara, The Chainsmokers, DNCE, Shawn Mendes and Zayn.

Even Lady Gaga appeared overjoyed for Gomez’s honesty, with a big smile and her hands pressed together.