An American Music Awards show where Taylor Swift doesn’t win a thing? Where KATSEYE, HUNTR/X and Sombr, who were little-known just a year or two ago, win three awards each? Where Morgan Wallen is passed over for favorite country album…again? (He has yet to win in the category.)
There were surprises galore at the 2026 AMAs, which were presented at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Monday (May 25). The show, hosted by Queen Latifah, aired on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.
The show included numerous short clips from past AMA ceremonies, most likely to remind the audience that the show has been around a really long time. Richard Nixon was president when the first AMAs were presented in February 1974. (Okay, not for much longer. He was forced out of office six months later.) Presidents come and go, but awards shows seem to go on forever.
The AMAs now covers a much broader range of music than it did in the early years. In the first five years of the show, awards were presented in just three broad genres – pop/rock, soul/R&B and country. This year, there were awards in each of those categories, but also hip-hop, Latin, rock/alternative, dance/electronic, K-Pop, Afrobeats and Americana/folk.
Here are some of the biggest snubs and surprises at the 2026 American Music Awards.
The American Music Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.
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Snub: Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift has won 40 American Music Awards, more than anyone else in the history of the show. (And it’s not even close. Runner-up Michael Jackson won 24 of the trophies.) But Swift didn’t add to her collection this year. She led all artists with eight nominations this year but didn’t win a single thing.
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Surprise: Shakira & Tyla Win in Genre-Neutral Categories
It’s always impressive when a genre superstar wins in a genre-neutral category. That’s what Shakira did, winning tour of the year over high-profile tours by Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar/SZA, Lady Gaga and Oasis.
In a similar way, South African star Tyla, whose music fuses pop and amapiano, won social song of the year for “CHANEL,” beating songs by Disco Lines & Tinashe, Pink Pantheress, Role Model and Zara Larsson.
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Snubs: Olivia Dean, Alex Warren, Lady Gaga
Swift wasn’t the only artist with a large number of nominations who was shut out. Dean had seven nominations. Warren and Gaga each had six. Dean, who won the Grammy for best new artist in February, needn’t worry. She is almost certain to be nominated for album, record and song of the year at next year’s Grammys.
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Surprise: Sam Barber
Sam Barber won breakthrough country artist, beating Tucker Wetmore, who won the 2026 ACM Award for new male artist of the year, and Zach Top, who won the ACM Award in that same category in 2025.
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Snub: Morgan Wallen
Wallen won best male country artist for the second time in three years. (He lost last year to his buddy and collab partner Post Malone). But Wallen, the best-selling country album artist of the 2020s (by a wide margin), has yet to win best country album. This year, his I’m the Problem lost to Megan Moroney’s Cloud 9.
Kenny Rogers and Garth Brooks, the top male country artists of previous eras, won five and four awards, respectively, in this category.
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Surprise: KATSEYE
KATSEYE won new artist of the year, beating Olivia Dean, who less than four months ago won the Grammy for best new artist (beating KATSEYE, among others). Alex Warren, Sombr and Leon Thomas were nominated in the new artist category and lost at both shows.
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Surprise: Sombr
Sombr’s win for best rock/alternative song for “Back to Friends” was no surprise, but even he expressed surprise at his win for best rock/alternative album for I Barely Know Her. The album reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200. All of the other nominees climbed higher. Sleep Token’s Even in Arcadia, Twenty One Pilots’ Breach and Zach Bryan’s With Heaven on Top each reached No. 1. Tame Impala’s Deadbeat climbed as high as No. 4.
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Surprise: Groups Score Big
Three of the seven acts that led the night with three wins each – BTS, KATSEYE and HUNTR/X – were groups. That’s an unusually high number. In recent years, the great majority of the leaders at awards shows have been solo artists.
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Snub: Artists Who Have Died
Unlike most awards shows, the American Music Awards doesn’t have an In Memoriam segment. In accepting an award for best throwback song for “Rock That Body,” The Black Eyed Peas saluted rapper Rob Base, whose most famous hit, “It Takes Two,” they sampled. Base died on May 22.
There was no such mention of Dash Crofts, even though Keith Urban performed Seals and Crofts’ 1972 smash “Summer Breeze,” which he covered on his upcoming Flow State album of “yacht rock classics. Crofts died on March 25.
The AMAs courts a younger audience than the Grammys and the Oscars. And they strive to maintain an upbeat party atmosphere. Still, they may be selling their audience short. This is a popular segment at most awards shows.