James Bay, Fifth Harmony, The Chainsmokers and Halsey, and Carlos Vives with Shakira to Perform at the 2016 American Music Awards
dick clark productions and ABC announced today several exciting additions to the lineup at the 2016 American Music Awards. Lighting up the AMA stage will be James Bay and Fifth Harmony, as well as special duets from The Chainsmokers and Halsey, and Carlos Vives with Shakira. They join previously announced performers Lady Gaga, Green Day, Bruno Mars, Twenty One Pilots, and "The American Music Award of Merit" honoree and performer Sting. The 2016 American Music Awards, the world's biggest fan-voted award show, will broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, at 8:00 p.m. EST on ABC.
James Bay, Fifth Harmony, Halsey, The Chainsmokers and Carlos Vives will all make their American Music Awards performance debut at this year's show. Fifth Harmony, The Chainsmokers and Twenty One Pilots are all first time AMA nominees. Fifth Harmony, who are performing their new smash single "That's My Girl," are nominated for Collaboration of the Year, and The Chainsmokers for New Artist of the Year Un-leashed by T-Mobile, Collaboration of the Year, Favorite Duo or Group – Pop/Rock and Favorite Artist – Electronic Dance Music.
With his wide-brimmed hat, leather jacket, and guitar in hand, it's easy to pick James Bay out of crowd. However, the UK singer-songwriter's voice remains equally distinct. The delicate delivery, breathtaking tone, and unparalleled guitar skills made his Republic Records debut album, "Chaos And The Calm," one to be remembered. Upon its 2015 release, the album arrived in the Top 15 of the Billboard Top 200, #1 on iTunes Top Singer/Songwriter Albums Chart, and hit singles "Hold Back The River" and "Let It Go" were certified platinum. Bay went on to sell nearly 2.7 million albums worldwide, was the biggest new artist album release that year in the UK, certified Gold in the US, Germany, Australia, Austria, France, Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand, platinum in Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, & Sweden, and double platinum in the UK. VEVO DSCVR placed him among their "Ones to Watch 2015" and VH1 gave him the "You Oughta Know" distinction, while BuzzFeed, Spotify, Blackbook, Yahoo Music, Mashable, Huffington Post, Shazam all hailed James as an "Artist to Watch" for 2015. In addition to performances on "The 57th Annual Grammy Awards," "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," "Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!," "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," "Good Morning America," "The Today Show," "Live with Kelly and Michael," "CBS Saturday Morning" and "Late Night with Seth Meyers," everybody from The New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, and Rolling Stone to InStyle, and Nylon have extolled Bay. After receiving the BRIT's Critics Choice award for 2015, BAY has gone on to receive a win for "Best Male Solo Artist" at the BRITS, International Newcomer at the ECHO Awards, "Best New Act" at the Q Awards and was nominated for "Best New" and "Best PUSH" at the MTV EMA and a MTV VMA for "Best New Act" and received three Grammy nominations for "Best New Artist," "Best Rock Song," and "Best Rock Album." Moreover, he's sold out venues across the globe with headlining shows, international festival performances and more.
The Chainsmokers, comprised of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, have evolved into a dominating musical force with a diverse repertoire of songs that have led them to become today's hottest young artist/producer duo. With a signature sound that deftly reaches across indie, progressive and pop realms, their original tracks and remixes have topped the charts throughout the world. Their evolution as producers and as songwriters has seen them dial up some of the biggest breakthrough songs of the year. Luminous tracks such as the triple-platinum "Roses" featuring Rozes (which Stereogum hailed as one of the "10 best songs of the year") and the chart-topping 'Bouquet' EP have fueled their ascent as a breakout duo with an unparalleled ability to craft undeniable pop gems. "Roses," which reached No. 3 on Billboard's Pop Songs chart and Top 5 on the iTunes Top Songs chart, was followed by "Don't Let Me Down" featuring Daya. The triple-platinum track ruled the airwaves, hitting No. 1 on Pop Songs for three straight weeks and Top 5 on the iTunes Top Songs chart. The Chainsmokers' current single "Closer," which features vocals from Halsey and the duo's own Drew Taggart, shot straight to the No. 1 spot on iTunes and Spotify upon release. The track marks their first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 – and is currently in its 10th consecutive week at No. 1, tying for the longest reign for a song in 2016. It's their third Top 10 on the Hot 100 this year, their fourth No. 1 on the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart and their third triple-platinum single this year. The Chainsmokers' most recent release, "All We Know" featuring Phoebe Ryan, immediately broke through the Top 5 on the iTunes Top Songs chart, hit No. 1 on the iTunes Dance chart and debuted in the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Born in New Jersey, Halsey went from last year's MTV Artist to Watch to selling out Madison Square Garden to a Platinum-certified debut album, "Badlands" (Astralwerks) in less than seven months. Halsey's very first tour sold-out in minutes, as did her second sold-out headlining tour last year. She also joined both Imagine Dragons and The Weeknd as the opener for each of their arena tours. She has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Last Call with Carson Daly.
BADLANDS was released on August 28, 2015, reaching #2 on the Billboard 200 chart and spawning the hit single "New Americana," which reached the Top 20 on Billboard's U.S. Alternative Songs chart. Her new single is the emotive 'Colors', with MTV Teen Wolf's Tyler Posey starring in the clip with Halsey. Upon its premiere, the video went viral, trending globally on twitter for several hours as fans eagerly watched and shared the video's twist ending. Halsey's upcoming headlining BADLANDS tour has gone global in 2016, with tour dates sold out across 5 continents.
The release of Fifth Harmony's sophomore album 7/27, on Syco Music/Epic Records, is the latest in a series of record-breaking accomplishments for the group. "Work from Home," the album's 3x-platinum certified first single, earned Fifth Harmony their first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, notching the top spot on both the Billboard Rhythmic and Pop Songs charts. Their second single "All In My Head (Flex)" is certified gold, while their current single "That's My Girl" is climbing the charts. The group's accomplishments on the charts add to an award-winning 2016, with first-time wins at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, People's Choice Awards and iHeartRadio's Much Music Video Awards, their second win at this year's Kids Choice Awards, two wins at the MTV Video Music Awards & Radio Disney Music Awards and three wins at the Teen Choice Awards. Fifth Harmony is currently on their global 7/27 Tour, which kicked off in South America in June and began its North American leg in Manchester, NH on July 27, hitting over 30 cities including Los Angeles, Brooklyn, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego and more before concluding in September; the group is currently on the European leg of the tour. In 2015, Fifth Harmony released their debut album, Reflection, which debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified Gold. Reflection includes two platinum records, "BO$$" and "Sledgehammer" in addition to the quadruple-platinum success of the single, "Worth It." Fifth Harmony boasts over 6.9 million followers on Instagram, 3.4 million on Twitter and 7.3 million fans on Facebook.
Over the course of her career, Colombian singer-songwriter and Grammy winner Shakira has sold over 60 million records worldwide and has won numerous awards including two Grammys, eight Latin Grammys, and several World Music Awards, American Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards, to name a few. She is the only artist from South America to have a number one song in the US, and has had four of the 20 top-selling hits of the last decade. At the age of 18, she founded the Pies Descalzos (Barefoot) Foundation which currently provides education and nutrition to over six thousand impoverished children in Colombia and is expanding its work to other countries, including newly launched projects in Haiti and South Africa. In October 2011, Shakira was named a member of President Obama's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. Shakira served as coach on the 4th and 6th season of "The Voice," NBC's hit reality vocal competition series that searches for the nation's best voice. Her tenth studio album "Shakira" was released in 2014, featuring hits such as "Can't Remember to Forget You," with Rihanna and "La La La (Brazil 2014)" which she performed at the finals of Fifa's World Cup 2014 in Brazil. In 2016, she starred as Gazelle in Disney's record-breaking film "Zootopia," as well as contributing to its soundtrack with "Try Everything". Shakira is currently back in the studio recording new music for an upcoming Spanish-language release.
Singer, songwriter, actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Carlos Vives is one of Colombia´s most emblematic artists and one of the most important figures in Latin music. With more than 50 million albums sold worldwide, and five No. 1 hits on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart, he´s considered a pioneer in the vallenato music and tropical pop of his country. He was the first Colombian artist to win a Grammy Award and to date he has brought home 2 Grammys and 9 Latin Grammys. Some of his biggest hits are: "La Gota Fría", "Déjame entrar", "Fruta Fresca", "Pa Mayte", "Volví a Nacer" (I Am Reborn) "La Tierra del Olvido" (The Forgotten Earth), "Cuando nos volvamos a encontrar" ft Marc Anthony and the #1 hit recording "La Bicicleta" , his duet with Shakira. Carlos was named the 'most influential musician" last year in Colombia, and was recently honored with a Hispanic Heritage Foundation Award for his work for the environment and the marginalized indigenous and Afro Cuban populations in his country. At the 2014 Latin Billboard Awards he received the Premio Espíritu de la Esperanza Award for his social work and dedication to noble causes. He was appointed by USAID as an Inclusion and Ethnic Diversity Ambassador in Colombia.
In Shakira and Carlos Vives launched "La Bicicleta," which broke records in Colombia when it remained #1 for 18 consecutive weeks and spent 13 weeks at #1 in Spain, as well as reaching #1 on US Latin iTunes. The video, shot in Shakira and Carlos's hometowns of Barranquilla and Santa Marta, respectively, has over 350 million views on Vevo to date.
The nominations for the 2016 American Music Awards were announced earlier this month, revealing that Drake leads with 13 nominations, while Rihanna received seven and Adele and Justin Bieber received five nominations each. Beyoncé and The Chainsmokers each received four nominations. Additionally, Bryson Tiller, Twenty One Pilots, Carrie Underwood, Fetty Wap and The Weeknd earned three nominations each.
The Artist of the Year nominees are Adele, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, Drake, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, Rihanna, Twenty One Pilots, Carrie Underwood and The Weeknd. The ten nominees will be narrowed to five based on the votes received through Monday, November 14 at 8:59:59am PT. Voting for Artist of the Year will close on Thursday, November 17 at 8:59:59pm PT. The winner will be determined by the total votes received throughout the entire voting period.
New Artist of the Year Un-leashed by T-Mobile nominees are Alessia Cara, The Chainsmokers, DNCE, Shawn Mendes and Zayn. Voting for this category opens November 2nd.
