Watch The Weeknd & Kenny G’s Ridiculously Dramatic American Music Awards Performance

AMA2020/Getty Images

Watch The Weeknd & Kenny G’s Ridiculously Dramatic American Music Awards Performance

AMA2020/Getty Images

Last night, we got our latest attempt at a quarantine-era awards show. The American Music Awards aired live from Los Angeles, but all the biggest performances were basically staged music videos, recorded remotely and given the biggest attention-grabbing treatments anyone could come up with. Given all that, the Weeknd, quite possibly 2020’s biggest pop star, deserves credit for coming up with the night’s biggest and most absurd performance.

Last month, the Weeknd dropped a remix of his After Hours track “In Your Eyes” that featured Kenny G, the slightly ridiculous early-’90s smooth-jazz star. The Weeknd and Kenny G also performed the track together at the Time 100 TV special in September, but they didn’t do it like this. The performance, recorded on a closed-down Los Angeles bridge, opens with Kenny G tootling away. Then the camera pulls back to reveal the Weeknd, his face all bandaged-up, singing both “In Your Eyes” and “Save Your Tears” while fireworks exploded behind him. It looked cool as hell. Watch it below.

Another highlight was Dua Lipa, performing with her crew of dancers on a soundstage in London. Lipa sang her single “Levitating,” and at the performance’s climax, she took off on a harness that sent her flying, Peter Pan-style. It’s a fun visual that would’ve absolutely killed if there was a live audience watching her. Here’s that performance:

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Meanwhile, Megan Thee Stallion, who released her new album Good News on Friday, performed her single “Body” live for the first time. Megan was actually in the Microsoft Theater, the awards show’s venue, and that meant she had an actual audience. (The show’s audience was reportedly small and socially distanced, and everyone wore masks. That still probably shouldn’t be happening! Someone must’ve really turned up the mics on the crowd, since it sounds like there’s a lot of them.) Here’s Megan’s performance:

https://twitter.com/opinion8dmecom/status/1330689763683278849

Other performers last night included Billie Eilish with Finneas, Justin Bieber with Shawn Mendes and Benny Blanco, Jennifer Lopez and Maluma, Machine Gun Kelly with Travis Barker, BTS, Nelly, and Bell Biv DeVoe.

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