Ariana Grande AMAs 2016: Did 'Dangerous Woman' Singer Deserve Artist of the Year? [POLL, VIDEO]
Ariana Grande won the Artist of the Year award at the 2016 American Music Awards Sunday night, defeating huge competition in the process.
Grande beat Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Rihanna and Carrie Underwood for the top prize of the night, Artist of the Year. The young singer was clearly overwhelmed and grateful to win the award, thanking her fans and her team.
"You guys, I think of you with everything I do. You guys are everything to me. Thank you," she said, addressing her fans. "I wanna thank my family who did everything they could to be here with me today. I love you guys so much. Thank you. To Monte and Avery and Scooter and Charlie and everyone who takes care of me, I love you guys, you're family. Thank you so much. And I wanna thank Tommy Brown and Max Martin, Victoria, Savan, everybody who made this 'Dangerous Woman' album with me so special."
Dangerous Woman has spawn several top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Dangerous Woman", "Into You" and her "Side to Side" collaboration with Nicki Minaj. The album, released in May, has since gone platinum.
Grande also gave a special shout out to art, and hoped that she could continue pleasing her fans.
"I just wanna say that I'm so thankful for art and I hope that with whatever it is I create in my life that I hope you feel a little bit of life and I hope that I can bring joy to you and make you feel unified and happy and I love you," she said.
So do you think Grande deserved the award for Artist of the Year? The Grande fanbase is strong, but so are the various fanbases for Bieber, Gomez, Rihanna and Underwood. Some may argue that it is odd that Grande was not nominated for any other categories this year while all of her competition received multiple nominations, but considering all four losing nominees won other awards, it's possible they were simply spreading the wealth.
At the same time, it's hard to deny that Grande's success this year has proven that she is here to stay in the world of pop music.
