The Chainsmokers Recieve 4 AMA Nominations
The American Music Awards has finally come out with their full list of 2016 nominations. While their were some notable announcements to mention outside the bounds of EDM, such as Drake previously beating the king of pop, Michael Jackson’s record of 11 nominations with 13, America’s favorite EDM duo has racked up four nods.
That’s right, The Chainsmokers have cleaned up this year with nominations including New Artist of the Year (I guess they never heard Selfie…), Collaboration of the Year (for ‘Don’t Let Me Down), Favorite Duo, and Favorite Dance Music Artist. The guys seem to be front runners in most categories but are without a doubt faced with some tough competition including Calvin Harris and Major Lazer. The most famous of Diplo’s side projects are fresh off of a landmark performance at ACL, when they doubled the crowd of Radiohead who was playing at the same time. So it is clear that while the guys are the favorite, it is still really anyone’s game.
Voting is now open for the AMA’s and fans can vote once a day, per category. So if you want to see The Chainsmokers win or lose, get on it! You can vote here.
2016 was an absolutely massive year for the duo, and honestly it’s hard to overstate how quickly they went from meme-status “#SELFIE” guys to legitimate awards-show mainstays. “Closer” with Halsey had spent the summer camped near the top of the charts, and “Don’t Let Me Down” with Daya wasn’t far behind, so it made total sense that voters and the AMA’s producers alike wanted them front and center.
When the ceremony actually went down that November, Alex Pall and Drew Taggart didn’t just show up as nominees, they took the stage to perform “Closer” alongside Halsey and Blink-182’s Travis Barker on drums, one of the more talked-about live moments of the night. And on the awards side, they came away with the win for Favorite Electronic Dance Music Artist, cementing themselves as the genre’s biggest crossover story of the year over stiff competition from Calvin Harris and Major Lazer.
Looking back, this AMA run was really the moment The Chainsmokers fully crossed over from “EDM duo” to full-blown pop culture fixture, something that carried them straight into their debut album “Memories…Do Not Open” the following year. Say what you want about the “Selfie” days, but by the end of 2016 nobody was laughing at these guys anymore, they’d earned their seat at the biggest table in mainstream music.
