Michael Jackson Nominations Make a Mockery of the American Music Awards

The American Music Awards have always been one of the least-respected music award shows, playing second (or even third) fiddle behind the Grammys and the MTV Video Music Awards. The AMAs have rightfully been mocked over the years for some of the ridiculous things they've done, but this one takes the cake.

The American Music Awards just released their nominations for 2009, and get this - Michael Jackson is nominated five times. The same Michael Jackson who has released exactly one new song during this entire year - and that was just two days ago. Somehow, the AMAs think that makes Michael worthy of an Artist of the Year nomination.

The nominations are based on "a combination of retail sales and airplay," and certainly Michael Jackson sold a lot of records after his death. But shouldn't part of the criteria for getting nominated be that the artist had to release some new material during the year? Jackson's Number Ones, a contender for Album of the Year, came out in 2003, for crying out loud.

No one would deny the impact that Jackson has had on popular music. In my opinion he's the greatest pop star of all-time. But allowing him to compete for awards that are supposed to reward the best music of 2009 is simply ridiculous.

The American Music Award winners will be determined by fans online. That guarantees that Jackson will win all five, because he has an insanely rabid worldwide fan base. Kids in New Zealand and Argentina and Austria will be voting for Michael. Eminem and Taylor Swift just can't compete with that. This means that in a few short weeks, the American Music Awards will be awarding their Artist of the Year trophy for 2009 to Michael Jackson. Absolutely stunning.

It's not uncommon to see award shows present posthumous awards to artists as a way to make up for overlooking them while they were alive, but never before has an award show done it in such blatant fashion.

The American Music Awards are going for a ratings grab, plain and simple. Dick Clark and the folks who run the AMAs realize their show has become irrelevant and have decided they can profit off Michael's death by nominating him for every award possible and hoping that Janet and Jermaine show up at the ceremony, thus giving the show a desperately-needed ratings boost.

The American Music Awards could have presented a tribute to Michael Jackson during their show and no one would have protested. But to nominate him for five awards makes a mockery of the show and ruins what little credibility the American Music Awards had left.

Sources:
http://abc.go.com/shows/american-music-awards/vote
http://www.michaeljackson.com/us/news/michael-jackson-nominated-numerous-american-music-awards-including-artist-year