Justin Bieber, Drake, Rihanna Top American Music Award Honors Roll

American Music Awards

Let the awards season begin.

Last night's AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS got the annual entertainment back-patting cycle underway with a gala show that featured GIGI HADID doing MELANIA TRUMP, JAY PHAROAH spoofing JAY Z and KANYE WEST and GREEN DAY skewering DONALD TRUMP (NET NEWS 11/20).

JUSTIN BIEBER topped the field with a total of four AMA wins -- none of which were televised -- including Video Of The Year ("Sorry"), Favorite Male Artist -- Pop/Rock, Favorite Album Pop-Rock ("Purpose") and Favorite Song -- Pop/Rock ("Love Yourself").  BIEBER wasn't even in the MICROSOFT THEATER; instead he was beamed in from ZURICH, SWITZERLAND while on tour to sing "Let Me Love You," his collaboration with DJ SNAKE.

DRAKE -- two of whose awards, Favorite Artist -- Rap/Hip-Hop and Favorite Album, Rap/Hip-Hop (""Views"), were televised, and one of which, Favorite Song -- Rap/Hip-Hop ("Hotline Bling") was not -- also had four, including one with RIHANNA, who sported three AMAs of her own. DRAKE  shared Favorite Song -- Soul/R&B ("Work") with her, while RIHANNA also won for Favorite Female Artist -- Soul/R&B and Favorite Album -- Soul/R&B ("Anti"), neither of which were given away on air.

TWENTY ONE PILOTS earned two of the televised awards (Favorite Duo or Group -- Pop/Rock and Favorite Duo or Group -- Alternative Rock), performing a mash-up of their songs "Heathens" and "Stressed Out."

Other two-time winners included CARRIE UNDERWOOD (Favorite Female Artist -- Country and Favorite Album -- Country ("Storyteller").

SELENA GOMEZ's Artist Of The Year win prompted one of the evening's true emotional moments which she acknowledged being "broken" and having to take some time from performing.

Other performance highlights included BRUNO MARS' show-opening "24K Magic," FIFTH HARMONY's rousing "That's My Girl," LADY GAGA's acoustic "Million Reasons," THE WEEKND's propulsive "Starboy," STING's greatest hits plus one new song medley and GREEN DAY's stridently anti-TRUMP "Bang, Bang." 

Among the evening's top collaborations were ARIANA GRANDE and NICKI MINAJ's steamy "Side To Side," THE CHAINSMOKERS joined by HALSEY and BLINK-182's TRAVIS BARKER for the chart-dominant "Closer," DJ KHALED, RICK ROSS, NICKY MINAJ, FUTURE and AUGUST ALSINA's "Do You Mind" and MAROON 5 and KENDRICK LAMAR's climactic "Don't Wanna Know."

Other emotional high points included PRINCE's "Purple Rain" being awarded Top Soundtrack, and his sister TYKA NELSON tearfully accepting the honor in his memory.

For a complete list of winners, go here. 

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