Taylor Swift dominates 2022 American Music Awards as Ticketmaster bosses apologise for ticket fiasco

Taylor Swift won all six of the categories she was nominated for at the 2022 American Music Awards on Sunday.

The Shake It Off singer took home the night’s biggest honour, Artist of the Year, as well as Favorite Female Pop Artist and Favorite Female Country Artist.

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Taylor Swift has set a record for the most-awarded act in American Music Awards history. Her re-recording of 2012’s Red, Red (Taylor’s Version), won the Favorite Country Album and Favorite Pop Album prizes, while All Too Well: The Short Film won the Favorite Music Video award.

The 32-year-old musician now has 40 wins to her name, beating Michael Jackson (26), Whitney Houston (22) and Kenny Rogers (19).

During her acceptance speech for Artist of the Year at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday (20.11.22), the ‘Karma’ hitmaker admitted she has her fans to thank for her “happiness”.

She said: “In the past few years, I have released more music than I did in the decade preceding that.

“I really feel like that’s down to the fact that you, the fans, made it clear that you wanted to hear lots of music … I found that the more music I made [and] the more music I put out, the happier I was.”

She continued: “I have the fans to thank, essentially, for my happiness. I love you more than I can say. I cannot express how unbelievable it is to me that I get to do this and that you still care. So, thank you underlined with 13 exclamation points.”

In her acceptance speech for the Favorite Pop Album accolade, she said, “This album is a re-recorded album, and I cannot tell you how much my re-recorded albums mean to me. I never expected or assumed they would mean anything to you, so I can’t thank you enough for caring about this album that I’m so proud of.”

The 2021 re-release of Red featured previously unheard songs, re-recorded vocals and tweaks to the musical arrangements, prompting award ceremonies to consider it on its own.

Other big AMAs winners included Beyoncé, who won Favorite Female R&B Artist and Favorite R&B Album for Renaissance; Kendrick Lamar, who was named Favorite Male Hip-Hop Artist and won Favorite Hip-Hop Album for Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers; and Harry Styles, who was crowned Favorite Male Pop Artist and won Favorite Pop Song for As It Was.

Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny all took home two prizes each.

Lionel Richie was honoured with this year’s Icon Award.

The 2022 AMAs took place at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles.

The winners list is as follows:

Artist of the Year: Taylor Swift

New Artist of the Year: Dove Cameron

Collaboration of the Year: Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) – Elton John and Dua Lipa

Favorite Touring Artist: Coldplay

Favorite Music Video: All Too Well: The Short Film – Taylor Swift

Favorite Male Pop Artist: Harry Styles

Favorite Female Pop Artist: Taylor Swift

Favorite Pop Group: BTS

Favorite Pop Album: Red (Taylor’s Version) – Taylor Swift

Favorite Pop Song: As It Was – Harry Styles

Favorite Male Country Artist: Morgan Wallen

Favorite Female Country Artist: Taylor Swift

Favorite Country Group: Dan +Shay

Favorite Country Album: Red (Taylor’s Version) – Taylor Swift

Favorite Country Song: Wasted on You – Morgan Wallen

Favorite Male Hip-Hop Artist: Kendrick Lamar

Favorite Female Hip-Hop Artist: Nicki Minaj

Favorite Hip-Hop Album: Mr Morale & the Big Steppers – Kendrick Lamar

Favorite Hip-Hop Song: WAIT FOR U – Future ft. Drake and Tems

Favorite Male R&B Artist: Chris Brown

Favorite Female R&B Artist: Beyoncé

Favorite R&B Album: Renaissance – Beyoncé

Favorite R&B Song: Essence – Wizkid ft. Tems

Favorite Male Latin Artist: Bad Bunny

Favorite Female Latin Artist: Anitta

Favorite Latin Group: Yahritza Y Su Esencia

Favorite Latin Album: Un Verano Sin Ti – Bad Bunny

Favorite Latin Song: Dos Oruguitas – Sebastián Yatra

Favorite Rock Artist: Machine Gun Kelly

Favorite Rock Song: Beggin’ – Maneskin

Favorite Rock Album: Impera – Ghost

Favorite Inspirational Artist: for KING & COUNTRY

Favorite Gospel Artist: Tamela Mann

Favorite Dance/ Electronic Artist: Marshmello

Favorite Soundtrack: Elvis

Favorite Afrobeats Artist: Wizkid

Favorite K-Pop Artist: BTS

Ticketmaster executives have issued an apology to Taylor Swift and her fans.

Shortly after the presale for the Lavender Haze singer’s The Eras Tour commenced last Tuesday, the company’s website crashed due to heavy site traffic.

Later, Taylor called out Ticketmaster bosses for making people feel like they went through “several bear attacks” to get tickets, and over the weekend, a representative for the firm apologised for the “terrible experience” customers were subjected to.

“We strive to make ticket buying as easy as possible for fans, but that hasn’t been the case for many people trying to buy tickets for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour,” they commented. “First, we want to apologise to Taylor and all of her fans – especially those who had a terrible experience trying to purchase tickets.”

The spokesperson went on to share some information on why the system was so overloaded. In addition to the “huge volume” of people seeking to buy tickets, they claimed there was a “staggering number of bot attacks”.

But despite the issues, Ticketmaster officials reminded fans that over two million tickets were sold for The Eras Tour – the most ever purchased for an artist in a single day.

“We’re working to shore up our tech for the new bar that has been set by demand for the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour. Once we get through that, if there are any next steps, updates will be shared accordingly,” they added.

Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ Overtakes Drake, Returns to No. 1 on Billboard 200 Albums Chart

One week after being overtaken by Drake and 21 Savage’s “Her Loss,” Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” has returned to the No. 1 spot atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Nov. 26), claiming third nonconsecutive week at the peak.

The album racked up 204,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 17 (down 32%), according to Luminate and Billboard. The album topped the chart for its first two weeks of release, dipped to No. 2 in “Her Loss”’ first week, and now has returned.

According to the announcement, “Midnights” is the first album to tally at least 200,000 units in each of its first four weeks of release since Adele’s “25,” nearly seven years ago. Of course, the news arrives at the end of a week when Swift was in headlines for reasons that no one except Ticketmaster’s competitors would hope for: The problem-plagued on-sale for her forthcoming “Eras” tour, which saw millions of people (and bots) vying for tickets all at the same time, resulting in an overloaded Ticketmaster website, long wait times and many thousands of disappointed fans. The ticket inventory was ultimately so depleted that Ticketmaster canceled the general on-sale scheduled for Friday.

Elsewhere on the albums chart — which had not updated at the time of this article’s publication — ex-One Direction member Louis Tomlinson’s landed his highest-charting solo album to date with Faith in the Future landing at No. 5, Bruce Springsteen’s soul-covers collection “Only the Strong Survive” landed at No. 8, and Nas clocked his 16th top 10 album with “King’s Disease III” at No. 10.

Elsewhere in the top 10, Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” rises 4-3, Lil Baby’s “It’s Only Me” does the obverse (3-4), and Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” and the Weeknd’s “The Highlights” hold at No. 6 and 7, respectively.