American Music Awards 2021 Nominations See Big Leads For Olivia Rodrigo, The Weekend

On Thursday, The American Music Awards announced its 2021 nominations for each category of the fan-voted award show. First-time nominee Olivia Rodrigo leads with seven nominations total and could break the record for the most number of wins by a first-time nominee.

Rodrigo received nominations this year for the Artist of the Year, New Artist of the Year, and Favorite Female Pop Artist. Her song “drivers license” is nominated for Favorite Trending Song, Favorite Music Video, and Favorite Pop Song. The AMAs nominated the "SOUR" album in the Favorite Pop Album category.

MRC Entertainment, the production company behind the music award show, bases the nominations on "streaming, album sales, song sales, radio airplay [and] social engagement." The measurements, it says, were tracked by Billboard and its data partner MRC Data between Sept. 25, 2020, through Sept. 23 of this year.

Artists Olivia Newton-John and Justin Bieber currently hold the records for most wins for a first-time nominee at four each. Other first-time artists receiving nominations this year alongside Rodrigo are Giveon, Kali Uchis, Saweetie, and 24kGoldn.

The Weeknd follows the “SOUR” singer with six nominations, followed by Bad Bunny, Doja Cat, and Giveon with five nominations each. Ariana Grande, BTS, Drake, The Weeknd, and Taylor Swift – last year’s winner — will be up against Rodrigo for Artist of the Year.

The “Folklore” singer took home three awards last year and may break her own record of most AMA wins of all time with the record set at 32 wins. Last year, Bieber, The Weekend, Dan + Shay, and Swift tied for most awards won with three wins each.

Country singer Morgan Wallen is nominated for two awards, but according to MRC Entertainment, he will not attend the event. Wallen's lack of involvement with the show comes after he was filmed using a racial slur in February, though he did later apologize.

“Morgan Wallen is a nominee this year based on charting. As his conduct does not align with our core values, we will not be including him on the show in any capacity [performing, presenting, accepting],” the statement read.

The fan-voted awards show will air from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. ET live on ABC.