Afrobeats, K-Pop Get Their Own Categories At The American Music Awards

The American Music Awards (AMAs) has introduced categories for Afrobeats and K-Pop, the first categories dedicated to the two fast-rising genres in a major United States music award show.

For the very first time, fans can vote for their “Favorite Afrobeats Artist” and their “Favorite K-Pop Artist”, starting November 1.  The winner will be announced at the award ceremony on November 20.

The nominees for the Afrobeats category are Burna Boy, CKay, Fireboy DML, Tems, and Wizkid.

Tems also has another nomination in the ‘Collaboration of the Year’ category for her collab on Wait For U with Future and Drake.

The K-Pop artists nominated are Blackpink, BTS, Seventeen, Tomorrow X Together and Twice.

BTS is also nominated in the ‘Favourite Pop Duo or Group category.’

Four other categories have been revived for the 2022 show, namely ‘Favorite Rock Song,’ ‘Favorite Rock Album,’ ‘Favorite Touring Artist’ and ‘Favorite Soundtrack.’

Afrobeats and K-pop’s emergence in the 2020s has been hailed as Africa and South Korea’s biggest cultural exports.  

Unfortunately, this year’s staging of what will be the 50th edition of the AMAs has left the Jamaican music fraternity in the dust. The Reggae and Dancehall genre are not alone either as there are still no categories for other specialized genres that the Grammys recognize, such as Classical and Jazz.

As for who the top AMAs nominees are this year; Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny leads with eight nods, including his first nod for ‘Artist Of The Year’. Beyoncé, Drake and Taylor Swift are close behind with six nods each, while Adele, Harry Styles, The Weeknd and Future each received five nods.

The AMAs airs globally across digital platforms in over 120 countries and territories, and is dubbed the world’s largest fan-voted awards show, unlike the Grammy Awards, which are voted on strictly by members of the Recording Academy.

AMA nominees are based on key fan interactions as reflected on the Billboard charts, including streaming, album and song sales, radio airplay, and tour grosses. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and its data partner Luminate, and cover the eligibility period of Sept. 24, 2021, through Sept. 22, 2022 (representing Billboard chart dates of Oct. 9, 2021, through Oct. 1, 2022).

In March this year, Billboard created the U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart – a standard record chart ranking the 50 most popular Afrobeats songs in the United States weekly.

The AMAs will return to the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 20. The ceremony is set to air live at 8 p.m. ET and on tape delay at 8 p.m. PT on ABC.