Last night the 2008 American Music Awards were hosted by Jimmy Kimmel live on ABC. Throughout the night the AMA’s kept their tradition of having truly powerhouse performances and a clean mix of genres (which was noted by some artists) not found anywhere else.

Ordinary Joe here, and I’m going to give you the low down on the show. Firstly though, I must admit I didn’t catch it all (being ordinary in all, life has many requirements). So included are only those events that I witnessed.

American Music Award Recipients Included:
out Coldplay and the Eagles

Best Pop/Rock Group
Daughtry beat out Coldplay and the Eagles

Best Country Group
Rascal Flatts (2nd consecutive year winning this category)

Best Rap Album (Ironically introduced by Nickelback…lol)
Kanye West’s “Graduation” trumped Jay-Z’s “American Gangster” & Lil Wayne’s “Carter 3”

Favorite Country Male Artist
Brad Paisley

Best Pop/Rock Album
Alicia Keys “As I am”

Pop/Rock Female
Rihanna beats music queens Alicia Keys and Mariah Carey

Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Male
Kanye West won, but for the not so first time this year said rather, that Lil Wayne deserved his award (while fans took time to for vote him)

T-Mobile Breathrough Artist
The Jonas Brothers

Best Country Female
Taylor Swift

Best Soul/R&B Album
Alicia Keys “As I am”

Artist of the Year
Chris Brown surprisingly beat out Lil Wayne, Alicia Keys, Eagles, Coldplay. The win obviously took him by surprise suggesting he would have given it to Coldplay. He and girlfriend Rihanna are well on their way to becoming Pop Gods.

Annie Lennox, whom I know best for her vocals in “Sweet Dreams are Made of This”,
gave a touching performance. After 78 million records sold worldwide, and more recent humanitarian efforts, she received the American Music Award of Merit, the society’s highest honor.

Performers were:

Taylor Swift “White Horse”

The Fray “You found Me”

Pussycat Dolls

Jonas Brothers “Tonight”

Coldplay “Lovers in Japan”

Ne-yo with “Miss Independent” & “Closer” with lots of microphone moves and a crazy cool female dancer.

Leona Lewis “Better in Time”

Mariah Carey with “I Stay in Love With You”, performed in a sleek black dress and helped down a stage prop by husband Nick Cannon. MIMI was also congratulated on having the Most #1 hits and Spending the Most Weeks at #1, two positions formerly held by the king Elvis Presley himself.

Miley Cyrus almost takes the show with her performance of “Fly on the Wall”. Afterwards the new 16 year old moved to cutting her cake backstage.

Beyonce “Single Ladies”

Natasha Bedingfield Medley of “Soul Mate” & “Unwritten”

Rihanna “Rehab”

Kanye West “Heartless”: solid performance, with a Japanese techno style background

Sarah McLachlan “Arms of the Angels” ft. Pink whom also had a solo performance