Quick Answer
The 52nd American Music Awards air live from Las Vegas on Monday, May 25, 2026 on CBS and stream simultaneously on Paramount+.
The Artist of the Year nominees are Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Morgan Wallen. Album of the Year contenders include Cardi B's AM I THE DRAMA?, Lady Gaga's Mayhem, Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl, Playboi Carti's MUSIC and Sabrina Carpenter's Man's Best Friend.
Alex Warren and sombr are the multi-nomination breakout stories, with Warren in four general field categories and sombr collecting seven nominations across the Rock and Alternative field.
How the AMAs Work
The American Music Awards are one of the few major awards shows decided entirely by public engagement. Nominations are calculated by Billboard and Luminate using streams, song and album sales, radio airplay and tour grosses across the eligibility window. Winners are then determined by fan voting through the official AMAs voting portal.
That structure makes the AMAs a much cleaner reflection of what people actually listened to in the last year than industry-juried shows, which is part of why the breakout categories tend to matter so much.
General Field Nominees
Artist of the Year
- Bad Bunny
- Taylor Swift
- Sabrina Carpenter
- Morgan Wallen
Song of the Year
- Alex Warren, "Ordinary"
- Taylor Swift, "The Fate of Ophelia"
- Ella Langley, "Choosin' Texas"
- Morgan Wallen, "I'm The Problem"
- Sabrina Carpenter, "Manchild"
- The Singing Voices of HUNTR/X (featuring EJAE, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami), "Golden"
Album of the Year
- Cardi B, AM I THE DRAMA?
- Lady Gaga, Mayhem
- Taylor Swift, The Life of a Showgirl
- Playboi Carti, MUSIC
- Sabrina Carpenter, Man's Best Friend
Tour Categories
For the 2026 cycle, the AMAs split touring recognition into two categories to separate established stadium acts from rising headliners.
Tour of the Year
- Beyonce, Cowboy Carter Tour
- Kendrick Lamar and SZA, Grand National Tour
- Lady Gaga, The Mayhem Ball
- Oasis, Oasis Live '25 Tour
Breakout Tour
- Benson Boone, American Heart World Tour
- Megan Moroney, Am I Okay? Tour
- Sleep Token, Even in Arcadia Tour
Multi-Nomination Storylines
Alex Warren's Pop Run
Breakout pop vocalist Alex Warren picked up four nominations across the general field: New Artist of the Year, Song of the Year for "Ordinary", Best Male Pop Artist and Best Pop Song. "Ordinary" hit a rare combination of streaming dominance and radio crossover, which is exactly the profile the AMAs reward. Warren is the most likely artist to leave the night with multiple wins.
sombr's Alternative Sweep
Rising singer-songwriter sombr collected seven nominations across the Rock and Alternative field, anchored by his album I Barely Know Her and the viral single "back to friends". His nominations include New Artist of the Year and Breakout Rock and Alternative Artist. The volume of nominations signals how seriously the industry is taking the alt-pop crossover lane that artists like him, Lola Young and d4vd are reshaping.
How to Watch the Broadcast
- TV. CBS, 8:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday, May 25, 2026.
- Streaming. Paramount+ live and on demand for subscribers. The Paramount+ with Showtime tier includes the show without ads.
- Radio. Audio simulcast on select iHeartRadio stations.
- International. Paramount+ regional carriers in most markets, with delayed broadcast on local CBS affiliates outside the United States.
What to Watch For
A few storylines worth tracking during the broadcast.
- The Artist of the Year vote. A four-way race between Bad Bunny, Swift, Carpenter and Wallen is the closest the category has been in years.
- The Song of the Year split. Six nominees across pop, country and animation-adjacent (HUNTR/X) makes for the most genre-diverse race the AMAs have produced.
- Country's continued ascent. Morgan Wallen, Ella Langley and Megan Moroney are all in multiple categories, reflecting how decisively country has moved into the mainstream pop conversation.
- The HUNTR/X factor. The fictional act from the animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters scored a real Song of the Year nomination for "Golden", which is the kind of crossover moment the AMAs were built to recognize.
Voting Window
Final fan voting closes shortly before the live broadcast. The official voting portal at theamas.com is the only sanctioned route, with categories opening on a rolling basis. Anyone in the United States can vote with a verified account, with daily voting caps per category.
The Bottom Line
The 2026 American Music Awards land on CBS and Paramount+ on Monday, May 25, 2026. The Artist of the Year race is wide open between Bad Bunny, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and Morgan Wallen. Alex Warren is the clearest multi-category favorite, sombr is the Rock and Alternative field's breakout story, and the introduction of a dedicated Breakout Tour category gives mid-tier touring acts a real piece of the night for the first time.
