Chris Brown won an award at the American Music Awards 2022 and audible boos were heard from the audience in attendance at the Microsoft Theatre.
During the live broadcast of the AMAs 2022 on ABC, Kelly Rowland took the stage to announce the nominees for Favorite Male R&B Artist. The artists that were up for the trophy were Brent Faiyaz, Giveon, Lucky Daye, The Weeknd and Brown.
After Rowland announced Brown as the winner, boos from the crowd were audible and the camera panned out to show the whole theatre. Rowland looked surprised at the audience’s reaction and as she was trying to continue with her presenting duties, she told the crowd to “chill out.”
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“Now Chris Brown is not here tonight so I’m accepting this award on his behalf,” she said before addressing the audience saying, “Excuse me… chill out.”
Rowland then continued, “But I wanted to tell Chris, thank you so much for making great R&B music and I want to tell him thank you for being an incredible performer. I’ll take this award — bring it to you. I love you. Congratulations. And congratulations to all the nominees in this category.”
Brown had been scheduled to perform at the AMAs with a Michael Jackson tribute but was canceled at the last minute. The artist had shared a video on Instagram showcasing his rehearsal of the musical number with the caption, “U SERIOUS?”
“WOULDVE been the ama performance but they cancelled me for reasons unknown,” Brown said in the comments.
Watch the moment below.