SLEEVE NOTES: The 2025 AMAs No-Show Glitz, Echoes of a Comeback

American Music Awards

It was billed as a return.. not just for the American Music Awards, but for the entire idea that one of music’s biggest nights could still feel big.

After two years off-air and a venue change to the swanky Fontainebleau in Las Vegas, the 2025 AMAs tried to remind us why they mattered. Instead, it played like a show that remembered the moves but forgot the feeling.

Let’s be real: the red carpet shimmered, the lighting was tight, and J.Lo turned it on.. opening with a six-minute medley that included “Birds of a Feather” and Kendrick’s “Not Like Us.” There were costume changes. There were high kicks. But, behind all the glitter, it was a little… lack luster.

No Taylor. No Beyoncé. No Billie. No Sabrina. No Gaga. No Chappell. No surprises.

Billie Eilish swept with seven wins.. and boy, did she deserve them. Hit Me Hard and Soft is a masterpiece. Yet, her absence from the stage echoed louder than the applause. Gracie Abrams snagged New Artist, and SZA took R&B Song for “Saturn.” Still, even the biggest wins felt a bit like checking boxes on a to-do list. And somehow.. took us researching on our own, after the show, to find the winners online. Most categories were omitted from the live presentation. Why?

Janet Jackson came out of hiding with a beautifully choreographed Icon medley. Rod Stewart got his Lifetime moment. But even with those nods to absolute legends, the energy stayed polite.. And missed the true legacy of these lifetime artists.

What about the tech issues? Blake Shelton’s audio dropped mid-performance. The screen just… sat there in silence. Were the duo (Gwen) pre-recorded, after being promised as live? Microphones muted in auspicious moments. Like a metaphor for the night. When the crowd cheers are intentionally muted, and fan votes are not even considered.. that’s where I draw the line. We don’t do censorship or propaganda here.

It used to mean something.. watching the big nights, the red carpets, the emotional speeches that felt like they cracked open the sky. But somewhere along the way, it stopped being about the art and started being about the algorithm. Awards season feels less like a celebration and more like a machine now. One that favors the cookie-cutter, the marketable, the safe. It’s hard to keep the faith when you watch visionaries get overlooked in favor of whoever paid the bill. It makes you wonder if the story, the sound, the soul of something ever even mattered.

I don’t want to be bitter. I want to believe in moments of recognition. But the trust feels broken. Watching these ceremonies now feels like waiting for a miracle you already know isn’t coming. They parade relevance like it’s proof of merit, but it’s all branding. All performance. So I hold tighter to the records, the small shows, the ones still doing it because they love to. Because at the end of the day, that’s where the real legacy lives.

This could’ve been a real comeback.

Instead, it felt like a dress rehearsal for a better awards show we never got to see.

And I’m not just bitter about Taylor. The message was very clear, industry wide.