The American Music Awards celebrated some of the year’s best music Monday night (May 25) through a star-packed lineup of performances — including KATSEYE, BTS and more — in addition to the awards. And now that the 2026 ceremony is in the books, Billboard wants to know which showcase was your favorite.

The Bangtan Boys opened the ceremony, contributing a pre-filmed performance of “Hooligan” from their ongoing Arirang World Tour that set the energetic vibe for the rest of the night. Later, the members of BTS appeared in person at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas to present SZA with best female R&B artist and accept artist of the year as well as song of the summer for “SWIM.”

New artist of the year winner KATSEYE also earned top marks — at least according to Billboard, which published its ranking of all the night’s performances shortly after the show concluded — with a colorful, choreography-packed rendition of new single “Pinky Up.” The girl group’s slot came amid other performances from Sombr, who sang his hit “Homewrecker”; Teyana Taylor, who treated the audience to “All of Your Heart”; Maluma, who played “Tu Recuerdo”; Riley Green, who crooned “Worst Way”; and Twenty One Pilots, who brought “Drag Path” to the stage.

Plus, Karol G was mesmerizing as she performed “Ivonny Bonita” moments before accepting the rare international artist of excellence honor and best Latin album for Tropicoqueta, while a number of other iconic acts demonstrated the power of nostalgia. The Pussycat Dolls, for instance, dazzled with a medley of 2000s hits “Buttons,” ”When I Grow Up” and ”Don’t Cha” (also sprinkling in a bit of new single “Club Song”) with Busta Rhymes and Spliff, while Hootie & the Blowfish charmed the crowd with 1990s classics “Hold My Hand” and “Only Wanna Be With You,” and New Kids on the Block threw it back to the ’80s with “You Got It (The Right Stuff).” Keith Urban tapped into the ’70s for a cover of Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze,” and Billy Idol celebrated winning this year’s lifetime achievement award with a show-closing medley of “Eyes Without a Face” and ”Dancing With Myself.”

But which of those diverse performances was the best of the entire night? That’s up to you.

Vote for which artist had your favorite performance at the 2026 AMAs in the poll below.

The three members of long-running Japanese action comic punk band Peelander-Z were seriously injured in a car crash last Monday (May 18) afternoon in Albuquerque, N.M. According to KOB4 TV, the band’s booking agent said the trio were driving westbound on I-40 an hour from the city when a semi-truck rear-ended their tour van.

The Japanese-born members of the high-energy band formed in Austin, Texas in 1998 — who each take on color-based pseudonyms such as those used by current members Peelander Yellow or Peelander Pink — have all been receiving treatment in an intensive care unit for injuries including broken bones, fractured vertebrae, broken ribs and other serious traumas.

Member Yellow (born Kengo Hioki) reportedly remains unresponsive, though a band spokesperson said doctors have taken him off a ventilator. “With the reports from the hospitals and from the doctors and the staff, things look very promising. It just was just, it was really bad,” booking agent Brad Raffenaud told the station. “Just lucky that they’re all three alive. I mean, if you were to drive past an accident like that, you wouldn’t imagine that anyone would survive that.”

The band has canceled all their remaining dates on their current tour and a GoFundMe has been raised to cover the medical expenses for Yellow, Pink and Tiger; at press time it had raised more than $156,000 of its $170,000 goal. According to the post, Yellow has “multiple fractures to his spine, ribs and arm and evidence of traumatic brain injury, which is being closely monitored.” The injuries are no longer considered life-threatening, but he will require additional surgeries and “significant rehabilitation.”

It reported that Pink (born Yumiko Kanazaki) suffered several bone fractures in her legs and pelvis, as well as abdominal trauma and organ injuries. She has reportedly undergone several surgeries and will also require quite a bit of rehabilitation. Third member, Tiger, reportedly “suffered a head injury and is being monitored for traumatic brain injury but has show significant progress and is expected to be discharged soon.” He will also reportedly require occupational and physical rehab after discharge.

In an Instagram post last week, Raffenaud wrote, “Friends. Please keep Peelander-Z in your thoughts. The band had a terrible accident yesterday in New Mexico while on tour. The van was rear ended by a semi truck and all members are currently hospitalized with major injuries and being closely monitored.”

At press time a spokesperson for the group could not be reached for comment on their current status of when they are expected to be discharged from the hospital. While all their upcoming headline shows have been canceled, some local Albuquerque bands will play a benefit show at the InsideOut on Friday (May 29) to help support the group, with sets from Night Child, Weedrat, Dazeyrot, Rebilt, 27 Devils Joking and more.

The first official meeting of the Pauls was about as lovely as you’d expect. Over the weekend, Paul McCartney sat down to talk about his upcoming solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, with actor Paul Mescal, who is slated to portray the former Beatle in director Sam Mendes’ The Beatles: A Four-Film Cinematic Event, due out in April 2028.

The two men sat down for The Boys of Dungeon Lane: In Conversation with Paul McCartney & Paul Mescal, which debuted on Monday (May 25) on Amazon Live and the Amazon Music app. The 11-minute chat in a restaurant opens with a seemingly nervous Mescal asking, “How do you feel about being interviewed?,” with veteran interviewee McCartney smiling back, “It depends if I like the person. Which is where we’re running into a problem already … No, I find if I like who I’m being interviewed by it comes easy.”

The intimate conversation finds Mescal diving right into the personal nature of the songwriting on McCartney’s album (due out on May 29), asking how the legendary pop songwriter is able to spin his memories into new music while also making them feel like they’re in the “present tense.”

“I don’t know how I do it,” says McCartney during the interview, which is broken up with glimpses of archival pictures of the Beatles and young people laughing at the tables around them. “I haven’t got a formula. They used to ask me and John [Lennon], ‘How’d you do it? Who writes the music, who writes the words?’ I don’t know. To me, I think any story or song you’re gonna do, it’s gotta involve memory. With the Beatles, we always tried to write something different.”

McCartney says he likes writing about Lennon and late Beatles guitarist/songwriter George Harrison these days, because it’s like “revisiting them.” He does just that on the new song “Down South,” which harkens back to his and Lennon’s pre-fame days as children.

They also discuss the new album’s collaboration with former bandmate Ringo Starr on the single “Home To Us,” as well as “Days We Left Behind,” a romantic tune looking back at what Mescal dubs McCartney’s “full, brilliant, complicated” relationship with his songwriting partner.

“Looking back on your life, I ran into this guy called John Lennon, and he was fighting life — he had a lot trouble, his dad had left home, his mom had got run over, he had a lot of trouble in there — so he was putting up a shield, so he was very witty, very biting,” McCartney says of Lennon. “When it came to writing, that kind of relationship stayed there, so on this record, I might even refer to him in my mind, as if we’re still writing together.”

They also discuss an emotional track written in honor of McCartney’s parents, “Salesman Saint.”

“I often remember that my mom and dad had me in World War II. I’ve always known that growing up, but at certain point you go ‘Wow.’ McCartney says of the track on which he paints a picture of his cotton salesman father and nurse/midwife mother, who in the song becomes a saint. “It occurred to me that it’d be good to just put down some stuff about them carrying on through whatever they had to put up with,” he says.

Watch the interview here.

Rise Against will return to Australia and New Zealand this November and December for their first headline run in the region since 2018, bringing Dropkick Murphys along for the ride on what will be the largest shows either band has played in the region.

The seven-date tour opens in New Zealand with shows at Christchurch’s Wolfbrook Arena on Nov. 21 and Auckland’s Spark Arena on Nov. 24, before the Australian leg takes in Melbourne’s John Cain Arena (Nov. 26), Brisbane’s Riverstage (Nov. 29), the Sydney Opera House Forecourt (Dec. 1) and Perth’s Red Hill Auditorium (Dec. 4).

Both bands will also appear at Meltdown Festival at Gosford’s Entertainment Grounds on Nov. 28 alongside The Living End and Jebediah. Mastercard presale opens Wednesday, May 27 at 12 p.m. local time, with general on sale Friday, May 29 at 1 p.m. local time.

The news comes following Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath teasing the return in a 2025 interview with The Music. “We are currently conspiring to get down and bring the show to Australia,” he said. “This is a place that has supported us for so long, so we are definitely coming back.” The band last visited Australia in early 2024 as support for blink-182’s arena tour.

The tour supports Rise Against’s tenth studio album Ricochet, released Aug. 15, 2025 via Loma Vista Recordings and produced by Grammy winner Catherine Marks — her first collaboration with the band. The Chicago quartet have placed five consecutive albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, with their most recent pre-Ricochet effort, Nowhere Generation (2021), debuting at No. 9.

Dropkick Murphys join behind their thirteenth studio album For the People, released July 4, 2025 on their own Dummy Luck label. The Boston Celtic punk stalwarts have scored three Billboard 200 top 10 entries, with 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory (2017) debuting at No. 8 and topping both the Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts simultaneously — the first time the band had reached No. 1 on either chart. Their signature track “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” remains one of the most recognisable songs in American sports, having become synonymous with the Boston Red Sox following the team’s 2007 World Series run.

Rise Against with Dropkick Murphys — Australia & New Zealand Tour 2026

Nov. 21 — Christchurch, NZ — Wolfbrook Arena
Nov. 24 — Auckland, NZ — Spark Arena
Nov. 26 — Melbourne, AUS — John Cain Arena
Nov. 28 — Gosford, AUS — Meltdown Festival, Entertainment Grounds*
Nov. 29 — Brisbane, AUS — Riverstage
Dec. 1 — Sydney, AUS — Sydney Opera House Forecourt
Dec. 4 — Perth, AUS — Red Hill Auditorium

*Festival appearance

There was no one big winner at the 2026 American Music Awards, which were presented at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Monday (May 25). Instead, seven acts tied for the lead with three awards each – Bruno Mars, BTS, Cardi B, KATSEYE, Sabrina Carpenter, HUNTR/X and Sombr.

But one artist had a notably off night – Taylor Swift, who led the nominations with eight nods but didn’t win any of them. Despite her disappointing showing this year, Swift remains the artist with the most AMAs in the show’s history – a whopping 40.

BTS won artist of the year for the second time. The K-Pop superstars first won in the category in 2021. BTS is one of just four repeat winners in the history of the category. Swift leads all artists with seven awards in the category. BTS is tied with Justin Bieber and One Direction with two wins each. BTS is thus tied with 1D as the group with the most wins in the category.

BTS also won song of the summer for “Swim” and best male K-Pop artist. These three awards bring their career tally of AMAs to 14. Among groups or duos, they are second only to Alabama. The country titans won 23 AMAs.

Bieber won best male pop artist, which brings his career tally of AMA awards to 19. That puts him in a tie with the late Kenny Rogers for the second-most wins among male artists. (The late Michael Jackson leads among men, with 24 awards.) This obviously makes Bieber the living male artist with the most AMA wins.

KATSEYE won new artist of the year. The global girl group was nominated for the Grammy for best new artist in February but lost to Olivia Dean, who was among the nominees here. KATSEYE is the seventh consecutive female act to win in this category. The last six winners were female solo artists: Camilla Cabello, Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Dove Cameron and Gracie Abrams. The last male winner in this category was Niall Horan in 2017. KATSEYE also won best music video and breakthrough pop artist.

HUNTR/X’s “Golden” won song of the year, continuing its winning streak at award shows. It won best song written for visual media at the Grammys and best original song at the Oscars. HUNTR/X also won AMAs for best vocal performance and best pop song.

Sombr won three awards – best rock/alternative song for “Back to Friends,” best rock/alternative album for I Barely Know Her and breakthrough rock/alternative artist. Sombr’s win in the song category was no surprise, but even he expressed surprise at his win in the album category. 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. This shows the power of a smash single with universal appeal.

Of the three other three-time winners on the night, Mars won best male R&B artist, best R&B song and best R&B album; Cardi B won best female hip-hop artist, best hip-hop song and best hip-hop album; and Carpenter won album of the year, best female pop artist and best pop album.

Swift wasn’t the only artist with a large number of nominations who was shut out. Also going winless were Dean, who had seven nods; and Warren and Lady Gaga, with six nods each.

Karol G‘s Tropicoqueta won best Latin album, beating, among others, Rosalía’s Lux. Lux is expected to be a major player in next year’s Grammy Awards. Tropicoqueta was nominated for best Latin pop album at the 2026 ceremony. Karol G also won the international artist award of excellence.

Twenty One Pilots won best rock/alternative artist for the second year in a row and the fourth time overall. Only one act has won more times in this category, which was first presented in 1995. That’s Linkin Park, which won has won six times (and was nominated this year).

The Black Eyed Peas’ “Rock That Body” won in the new category of best throwback song. The song was the fifth single from the group’s Billboard 200-topping 2010 album The E.N.D. It was the most recently released song among the nominees. The other nominees were 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up” (1993) and Goo Dolls’ “Iris” (1998).

Queen Latifah hosted the 52nd American Music Awards, which aired on CBS and streamed on Paramount+. The AMAs, the world’s largest fan-voted award show, was created by legendary producer Dick Clark and first awarded in 1974.

The 52nd American Music Awards nominees are based on key fan interactions, including streaming, album and song sales, radio airplay and tour grosses. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and Luminate, and cover the data tracking eligibility period of March 21, 2025 through March 26, 2026.

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.