Usher, OutKast Win Three American Music Awards
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – R&B singer Usher and hip-hop duo OutKast each won three prizes by the midway mark at the American Music Awards on Sunday, with Usher on his way to a clean sweep of all four categories in which he was nominated.
Usher grabbed the prizes for favorite male artist in the soul/R&B category, and favorite album in both the pop/rock and soul/R&B categories.
“I just wanna thank all the lovely ladies,” Usher said, upon receiving the latter award.
Usher, whose “Confessions” album has been the biggest seller this year with U.S. sales of 6.6 million copies, leads the contenders with nods in four categories. He also has a leading five nominations at the Vibe Awards, which take place in Los Angeles on Monday, and four nominations at the MTV Europe Awards taking place in Rome on Thursday.
OutKast won all three categories in which it was nominated: favorite album (rap/hip-hop), and favorite group (pop/rock and rap/hip-hop).
Antwan “Big Boi” Patton, one-half of the superstar combo, paid tribute to Ol’ Dirty Bastard, the colorful rapper who died suddenly in New York on Saturday. He also said OutKast was working on two albums, including a movie soundtrack.
The only other multiple winner was country star Toby Keith, who took the favorite male artist and favorite album prizes in the country category. He dedicated the latter award to U.S. military personnel overseas.
Other winners included singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow, rock band Linkin Park, R&B singer Alicia Keys, rapper Jay-Z and Latin singer Marc Anthony.
Performers included No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani who is preparing to release her debut solo album, and Rod Stewart in a pair of red tartan pants.
Winners are determined by a national poll of 20,000 people, with nominees drawn from retail sales and radio airplay data.
The American Music Awards last year shifted from January to November, in part to avoid competition from the more prestigious Grammys, which take place in February. Still, last year’s American Music Awards attracted a record low of 12.8 million viewers, less than half the number of Grammy viewers.
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