Chris Brown got the AMA’s awards
Chris Brown received a cold welcome at the American Music Awards on Sunday (Nov. 20), despite being absent from the ceremony. The artist, awarded the Favorite Male R&B artist award, was booed loudly by the audience as Kelly Rowland accepted the award on his behalf.
When Rowland revealed the nominees that included Brent Faiyaz, Given, Lucky Daye and The Weeknd and then announced Brown to be the night winner, the crowd cheered and booed, Deadline reports. Rowland was shocked by the response and gently dissented from the group by telling the audience to “chill out.”
According to Deadline, she continued, “Now Chris Brown is not here tonight, so I’m accepting this award on his behalf.” She also said, “Excuse me… chill out.”
Rowland also addressed Brown when she accepted his award. He said, “But I want to say, Chris, thank you for producing such amazing R&B music. I want to say thank you for being a phenomenal performer. I’ll accept this, awarding the award to your door. I cherish you. Congratulations. And congrats to all nominated candidates of this class.”
Brown was set to sing in a Michael Jackson tribute at the AMAs that was later cancelled following ABC executives were made aware of the plans, as Puck’s Matt Belloni reported in today’s “What I’m Hearing” newsletter. Brown was forced to drop from the show after his performance was pulled and revealed the scheduled Jackson performance with rehearsal footage posted on the Instagram account on Saturday (Nov. 19, 2018). He posted a caption that read, “U SERIOUS?” commenting, “it would’ve been the ama performance, but they cancelled me for reasons unknown.”
Belloni provided the context in his email, noting to his readers that AMA Executive Producers Jesse Collins and Stephen Hill worked together with Brown for the tribute show that was reportedly comprised of “Beat It,” a particular sexist choice, given Brown’s previous abuse of his the then-girlfriend Rihanna and for which Brown was accused of the crime of felony assault.
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When Belloni asked concerning “the prospect of a convicted domestic abuser feting an alleged child molester on a Disney network,” according to the newsletter he sent out, ABC and Disney executives were “furious” about the plan; however, they were open to changing Brown’s behaviour in a better “thoughtful” way, per Belloni.
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