day 2.351

the american music awards

or should i call is the justin bieber awards? the american music awards aired live on abc last night and the fan-voted prizes went to...well, the fan favorites. the big winner of the night was justin bieber, who took home 4 trophies. here's a look at the full list of winners, and some of the performance highlights.

artist of the year

• justin bieber

pop/rock

• male artist: justin bieber
• female artist: lady gaga
• band, duo or group: black eyed peas
• album: justin bieber, my world 2.0

soul/r&b

• male artist: usher
• female artist: rihanna
• album: usher, raymond v. raymond

rap/hip-hop

• male artist: eminem
• album: eminem, recovery

country

• male artist: brad paisley
• female arist: taylor swift
• band, duo or group: lady antebellum
• album: carrie underwood, play on

adult contemporary

• artist: michael buble

alternative rock

• artist: muse

latin

• artist: shakira

t-mobile breakthrough artist

• justin bieber

if i had it my way, fan-voted award shows wouldn't be voted on until the night of the show. every nominee would be required to perform, and the viewers would vote on that performance. until then...

after thanking michael jackson awkwardly for one of his awards, justin took the stage to sing "pray." as one of the people i follow on twitter said, every elementary school choir across the country will be adding this song to their holiday pageant.

speaking of children's choirs, katy perry was backed by one of the creepiest ones during her rendition of "firework." too bad they couldn't make fireworks shoot out of her chest like in the music video

christina aguilera continues to promote her movie debut, burlesque, with on-air performances. her latest album didn't get this kind of publicity.

ke$ha was, surprisingly, one of the highlights of the night. except for the bizarre guitar crashing moment at the end of the performance.

enrique iglesias continued his comeback effort with this performance, featuring pitbull. at least he sang live?

rihanna opened the show this year, singing a medley from her latest album, loud. like other nominees (ahem, taylor swift), live performance is not riri's strong suit.

and speaking of taylor, she performed the "taylor lautner song," also known as "back to december." her new look - straight hair and bangs - plus a sample of one republic's "apologize" proved that taylor may finally be moving on from tweenage dreams of lollipop kingdoms and fairytale romances.

the backstreet boys and new kids on the block closed the show with a mash-up of their greatest hits. it was definitely what everyone '90s kid has been waiting for...or been trying to avoid.

and my favorite performance of the night came from a pregnant p!nk. p!nk is one of the few performers who consistently looks like she's having a good time on stage.