Green Day, others get political at the AMAs
Coming on the heels of a divisive political election, the American Music Awards on Sunday night in Los Angeles became a platform for strong -- and sometimes foul -- political language.
Less than two weeks after the presidential election, President-Elect Donald Trump was bound to be hot and divisive topic at the show. And the insults and jokes came from all sides, including the hosts, the presenters and the performers.
Co-hosts Gigi Hadid and Jay Pharoah started off the show with not-so-great impressions of Melania and Donald Trump.
Singer Idina Menzel and businessman Mark Cuban commiserated about not getting invited to the presidential inauguration, as both were supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. And Menzel gave a shout out to the cast of the Broadway show “Hamilton” who have been criticized by Trump on Twitter.
And Rock And Roll Hall of Famers Green Day blasted Trump during their performance of “Bang Bang” when lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong sang a new chorus in the middle, “No KKK, no fascist USA, No Trump.”
The censors were on their toes as well, with several unscripted moments in which curse words were flying profusely. Most award shows have to bleep out or mute some lyrics or accidental slips of the tongue, but this year’s show seemed to be full of foul language, mostly on purpose.
Chrissy Teigen unleashed a mouthful of colorful language about the election that most people didn’t hear on the broadcast as she was introducing her husband, singer John Legend.
Maybe next year the show should consider moving to cable.