RIHANNA WITH HER AMA ICON AWARD BACK IN 2013.
CALIFORNIA, United States, Friday October 14, 2016 – Barbados’ pop princess Rihanna continues to reign, with seven nominations for the American Music Awards (AMAs), outstripping the female competition and placing two spots ahead of her closest rival Adele.
The two superstars will go up against Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Adriana Grande, Twenty One Pilots, Carrie Underwood, The Weeknd and Rihanna’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Drake for Artist Of The Year.
Drake, meanwhile, earned a record-breaking 13 nominations thanks to his latest album, Views, shattering Michael’s Jackson’s mark of 11 nominations in 1984 when Thriller confirmed his status as the King of Pop.
Bieber was the second man up with five nominations, while Beyonce and The Chainsmokers each received four.
Bryson Tiller, Twenty One Pilots, Carrie Underwood, Fetty Wap and The Weeknd earned three nominations each.
Nominees for the title of new artist of the year are Zayn, Alessia Cara, The Chainsmokers, DNCE, and Shawn Mendes.
The overall song of the year category has been scrapped this year, replaced by best song in the categories of pop/rock, country, rap/hip-hop and soul/R&B.
Nominations are based on a metric that includes sales, airplay and social activity tracked by Billboard magazine and its partners. Winners are determined by fan votes on the show’s website or through Facebook and Twitter.
The nominees for Artist of the Year will be cut in half by November 14 based on fan votes. Voting will close on November 17.
The awards show will be broadcast live by ABC on November 20 from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.