Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
American Music Awards Producers Address Canceled Chris Brown Michael Jackson Tribute
The producers of the American Music Awards are speaking out after Chris Brown’s performance at Sunday’s show was canceled.
The R&B superstar was slated to take the stage in honor of the 40th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, but Chris claims that the AMAs scrapped his performance for unknown reasons.
He shared video of rehearsals where he opened with “Under the Influence,” followed by a medley of MJ hits including “Beat It,” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Billie Jean,” and “Thriller.”
“U SERIOUS?” he captioned the clip before revealing that the performance was for the AMAs. “WOULDVE been the ama performance but they cancelled me for reasons unknown.”
On Monday, the producers behind the show, Dick Clark Productions, released a statement addressing the cancelation.
“Live shows change all the time, it’s the nature of this business; unfortunately, this element of the AMAs didn’t come together as we couldn’t align on the performance, to no fault of Chris Brown,” a spokesperson for DCP told “ET.”
Ciara was seemingly also slated to take part in the MJ tribute. She shared a video of her and Chris rehearsing “Thriller.” “@ChrisBrownOfficial you’re a rare breed of this generation. Always fun to rock with you,” she said.
On Tuesday, Chris appeared to throw shade at the AMAs, which drew 3.3 million total viewers, an all-time low.
In his Instagram Story, he reposted a headline of the ratings and added the face palm emoji. “I’ll just leave this here,” he wrote alongside a video of his rehearsals.
Chris Brown reacts to #AMAs’ all-time low viewership last night amid drama with the show:
“🤦♂️” pic.twitter.com/0wlgpklvHi
— Buzzing Pop (@BuzzingPop) November 22, 2022
Chris did not attend the show, but he did take home the award for Favorite Male R&B Artist. When Kelly Rowland announced Chris as the winner, there were some boos from the crowd. But Kelly wasn’t having it and told them to “chill out” before giving Chris his flowers.
“But I want to tell Chris thank you so much for making great R&B music,” she said. “And I want to thank you for being an incredible performer. I’ll take this award, bring it to you. I love you.”