American Music Awards Review

The 2007 American Music Awards was hosted loosely this year by Jimmy Kimmel, who did an adequate job supporting the show for the fourth time in a row but seemed a little bit like when your dad busts up in your 15th birthday not knowing about anything TV or music-related, and using classic gags to get giggles out of your high school friends. Will.I.Am and Fergie opened the show, along with the Pussycat Doll's Nicole Scherzinger, ensuring that the year's take on the show would be fraught with mediocrity. That and the fact that the entire Writer's Guild was still on strike kept the show's expectations low. On the bright side, it either met or exceeded those expectations. And also, perhaps because of the strike complications, the show relied heavily this year on performances. And though only about half of them were people you'd actually pay money to see, it was nice to see a music award show that was, from start to finish, about the music.

Because the American Music Awards encompasses all good selling material, most viewers were subjected to the mediocrity in other genres they may not like or be familiar with. In other words, I wrote an e-mail and checked my bank balance through Rascal Flatts, Maroon 5, and Avril Lavigne, who looked conspicuously like she was phoning it in with an odd country twanged rock tune, draped in a long sparkly skirt and black graphic tee.

Pop Disney crowd sensation of whom I've never heard, the Jonas Brothers, performed a Backstreet Boy/Menudo/rock style something that sounded lipped but may not have been, and the brother in the middle tripped on some breakaway glass at the beginning of the performance but recovered nicely.

Bright spots were Rhianna's classic beauty, ensemble and performance of the monster monster hit "Umbrella," accompanied by a full orchestra. Later she and Ne-Yo paired up for their current duet that I forget the name of. But the song showcases Ne-Yo's writing ability, not so much his frontman star power.