Billboard Explains: The American Music Awards

The American Music Awards is considered the world’s largest fan-voted awards show, but it hasn’t always worked that way.

After Dick Clark created the ABC broadcasted show in 1973, the show sought to distinguish itself from the peer-voted Grammys by focusing on what music fans bought and listened to. The exact way of measuring that popularity has evolved over the years. In recent years, nominations became based on key fan interactions as reflected on the Billboard charts, including streaming, album sales, song sales and radio airplay. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and its data partner MRC Data, and cover the time period Sept. 25, 2020, through Sept. 23, 2021.

But how did the fans become responsible for picking the winners? And who gets to pick the performers for each show? Find out in the latest episode of Billboard Explains before the 2021 AMAs, hosted by this year’s three-time nominee Cardi B for the first time, airs live on Sunday, Nov. 21 from Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater. Click here for a full lineup of performers and presenters for the 2021 ceremony.

After the video, catch up on more Billboard Explains videos and learn about the Billboard Latin Music Awards, the Hot 100 chart, how R&B/hip-hop became the biggest genre in the U.S., how festivals book their lineups, Billie Eilish’s formula for success, the history of rap battles, nonbinary awareness in music, the Billboard Music Awards, the Free Britney movement, rise of K-pop in the U.S., why Taylor Swift is re-recording her first six albums, the boom of hit all-female collaborations, how Grammy nominees and winners are chosen, why songwriters are selling their publishing catalogs, how the Super Bowl halftime show is booked and why Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” was able to shoot to No. 1 on the Hot 100.

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TikTok Hires Shavone Charles as Head of Diversity & Inclusion Communications

TikTok has tapped Shavone Charles to lead communications around the social platform’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Charles joins TikTok next week in the newly formed role after serving as the director of communications and creative partnerships at VSCO, where she launched the #BlackJoyMatters campaign. Prior to joining VSCO, she oversaw global music and youth culture communications at Instagram and music and culture communications at Twitter, two positions that she created at both companies.

Outside of her work with major tech companies, Charles is also the founder of two creative collectives, Future of Creatives and Magic In Her Melanin, focused on amplifying women of color and other underrepresented creators.

“As a Black creator and advocate, I am thrilled to join the TikTok team and continue my work in fearlessly supporting and amplifying the stories of underrepresented creators,” Charles told The Hollywood Reporter.

The executive will be based in Los Angeles and report up to Hilary McQuaide, TikTok’s head of communications.

Over the past year, TikTok has sought to improve its relationship with Black creators after a number of creators have spoken out about not receiving credit or recognition for their creation of viral trends on the platform. (Over the summer, several Black creators even withheld from posting to the platform as part of a virtual “strike” to highlight their contributions to the app.)

In January, TikTok created a Black creatives incubator program with MACRO to better support Black TikTok creators, and earlier this week, 10 Black creators were awarded $50,000 grants as part of the partnership between the two companies.

This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.

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Ozuna & Antony Santos Bring Bachata to the 2021 Latin Grammy Stage

After Ozuna took viewers underwater during his performance of “Del Mar” at the 2021 Latin Grammy Awards, the “Caramelo” singer quickly transformed into a smooth-singing bachatero alongside genre veteran Antony Santos, both stars giving a sensual performance of “Señor Juez.”

As dancers engaged in complex bachata choreography, the two crooners delivered a passionate rendition of the guilt-ridden single.

Earlier in his performance, Ozuna wore an iridescent jacket as he weaved between dancers performing a short portion of the Doja Cat and Sia assisted track. Ozuna is up for two Latin Grammys, including best reggaeton performance for “Caramelo” and best urban music album for Enoc.

Hosted by Ana Brenda Contreras, Carlos Rivera and Roselyn Sánchez, the 22nd annual Latin Grammys Awards includes a star-studded lineup of both performers and presenters such as C. Tangana, Maná, Los Dos Carnales, Ozuna, Gloria Trevi, and Myke Towers, among others, taking the stage.

With the theme “rediscovering life through music,” the three-hour show will “invite audiences to rediscover what’s important in life using music as a storyline,” according to a statement from the Latin Recording Academy.

Colombian singer-songwriter Camilo leads the 2021 Latin Grammys nominees with 10 nods, including nominations in the album, record, and song of the year categories. He’s followed by tropical music icon Juan Luis Guerra with six, Spanish rapper Tangana with five nominations, and multiple artists, including Bad Bunny, with four.

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Steve Perry Decks the Charts With ‘The Season’

Steve Perry’s first holiday album, The Season, jingles onto Billboard’s charts, as the set debuts at No. 6 on Top Album Sales with 11,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 11, according to MRC Data. It’s Perry’s second top 10 in the 30-year history of the chart, following his 2018 studio album Traces, which debuted and peaked at No. 4.

The Season also arrives at No. 4 on Top Holiday Albums, No. 16 on Independent Albums and No. 21 on Vinyl Albums.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now MRC Data. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Leading the latest Top Album Sales chart is ABBA’s first studio album in nearly 40 years, Voyage, which sails in at No. 1 with 78,000 copies sold. That marks the largest sales week of 2021 for an album by a group.

Radiohead’s Kid A Mnesia starts at No. 2 on Top Album Sales with 21,000 copies sold. The set operates as a reissue of Radiohead’s 2000 album Kid A and its 2001 album Amnesiac. The former debuted at No. 1 on Top Album Sales in 2000, while the latter debuted and peaked at No. 2 the following year. The new Kid A Mnesia package also boasts additional previously unreleased tracks.

Ed Sheeran’s = falls from No. 1 to No. 3 in its second week on Top Album Sales, with 17,000 sold (down 76%) while NCT 127’s former leader Sticker: The 3rd Album jumps 14-4 (16,000; up 150%) after it garnered a deluxe reissue with additional tracks.

Summer Walker’s Still Over It enters at No. 5 with 12,000 sold, while Snail Mail’s second studio album Valentine bows at No. 7 with 10,000 sold. The latter marks the best sales week and first top 10 for Snail Mail. Valentine also starts in the top 10 on Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums, Independent Albums, Vinyl Albums and Tastemaker Albums. The latter ranks the week’s top-selling albums at independent and small chain record stores.

Rapper Key Glock sees his latest release Yellow Tape 2 debut with 9,000 sold at No. 8, while Sena Kana’s Show Me starts at No. 9 with just under 9,000 sold.

Closing out the top 10 is Vince Guaraldi Trio’s evergreen holiday hit A Charlie Brown Christmas TV soundtrack, as it flurries up the list 24-10 with 8,000 sold (up 82%). It also bounds 4-1 on the Soundtracks chart, 11-4 on Vinyl Albums and 159-63 on the Billboard 200.

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Paloma Mami Reflects on Latin GRAMMY Nomination, Her Dedicated Fanbase & More | Billboard News

Billboard caught up with Paloma Mami before the 2021 Latin GRAMMY Awards to discuss her best new artist nomination, the biggest lesson she learned creating her album and what she loves most about her fans.

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