American Music Awards air tonight with star-studded performances

Entertainment American Music Awards airing tonight with performances from Billy Idol, Keith Urban, Teyana Taylor and more By Alex Sundby Alex Sundby Senior Editor Alex Sundby is a senior editor at CBSNews.com. In addition to editing content, Alex also covers breaking news, writing about crime and severe weather as well as everything from multistate lottery jackpots to the July Fourth hot dog eating contest. Read Full Bio Alex Sundby May 25, 2026 / 6:00 AM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google The American Music Awards kick off the unofficial start of summer tonight, celebrating the best in music and featuring performances from such artists as Billy Idol, Keith Urban, Teyana Taylor and others. The show airs on CBS television stations and streams on Paramount+ starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.The AMAs boast of being the world's largest fan-voted awards show. Voting for most of the categories closed earlier this month, but people can still vote online or on Instagram for social song of the year and tour of the year through the first half hour of the show.Queen Latifah serves as host this year, returning to the AMAs stage after co-hosting in 1995 and performing over the years.Taylor Swift leads the nominations with eight following last year's release of "The Life of a Showgirl," which is up for album of the year and best pop album. Two songs from the album also received nods: "The Fate of Ophelia" for song of the year, best music video and best pop song, and "Elizabeth Taylor" for song of the summer.Swift has already won 40 times at the AMAs, which is more than any other artist. She's also up for artist of the year and best female pop artist this year.Morgan Wallen, Olivia Dean, Sabrina Carpenter and Sombr were right behind Swift with seven nominations each. But the awards are only part of the show. Billy Idol, who's known for such hits as "Dancing With Myself," "Rebel Yell" and "White Wedding," will receive a lifetime achievement award and perform a medley of...