American Music Awards 2015: One Direction named artist of the year

One Direction scored the evening’s biggest honor – Artist of the Year – at the fan-voted awards show.

“This is a testament to how incredible our fans are”, Louis Tomlinson said onstage at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

“Tonight’s not about me; tonight’s about the music”, Jennifer Lopez, this year’s AMAs host, said at the start of the night, before adding, “Do you want to dance with me?” Gwen then performed “Used to Love You” in front of sad images of herself, and with lines like “I don’t know why I cry”, Stefani connected with the audience on a whole new level.

The British band received the prize for the second time in a row, and also won the best pop/rock group. “The American Music Awards wanted to show its support for the people of France and the entire world”.

The Favourite Artist – Alternative Rock honour was taken by American rock band Fall Out Boy.

Meghan Trainor and Charlie Puth excited the crowd when they shared a passionate kiss at the end of their duet on his hit Marvin Gaye. If they say someone like Sam Smith made the best record of the year (he won earlier this year for his song “Stay With Me”), viewers most likely assume a lot of music industry knowledge is going into that decision.

Bieber, who also is set to perform, already has room to celebrate: Billboard announced Sunday his new album, “Purpose”, will debut at No. 1 on its charts Monday after selling 649,000 equivalent albums. Luke Bryan, who performed Home Alone Tonight was named Favorite Country Male Artist while Carrie Underwood was the Favorite Country Female artist.

As with most award shows, there are a few moments of goodness mixed with a whole lot of filler. Even rapper and former ex, Diddy, gave a shout out to his former flame saying “Give it up for J.L.O” after her performance.

“Star Wars” veteran Harrison Ford introduced five-piece a cappella group Pentatonix, who put their vocals to John Williams’ iconic “Star Wars” score, along with a full orchestra on stage.

Hearts, however, were won by Jared Leto and Celine Dion’s heartfelt tribute to Paris in the wake of the November 13 terrorist attacks there.

Justin Bieber sang and danced through a medley of his hits, ending with a shower of rain on stage.