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The American Music Awards is speaking out after backlash over Chris Brown’s canceled performance took the internet by storm on Monday. The 33-year-old singer was scheduled to perform a tribute in honor of Michael Jackson at Sunday’s award ceremony, but producers unexpectedly pulled the plug on the performance.
Here’s why Chris Brown’s performance was canceled
Dick Clark Productions, the company behind the AMAs, issued a statement to Entertainment Tonight, detailing why they chose to scrub the R&B singer’s tribute act. According to producers, their decision to cancel the performance was a creative direction choice and had nothing to do with Brown directly.
“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,” the statement read.
The “Run It!” hitmaker was scheduled to perform in honor of the 40th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s classic hit Thriller. After news of the performance cancellation made headlines over the weekend, Brown took to his Instagram page to share a rehearsal video from the planned performance. The video captured him and a team of backup dancers rehearsing his song “Under The Influence” before quickly transitioning into a performance of Jackson’s hit smash “Beat It.”
“WOULDVE been the ama performance but they cancelled me for reasons unknown,” he wrote in the comment section.
Ciara was also scheduled to perform alongside Brown
It turns out, Brown had also tapped Ciara to perform alongside him. On Monday, Cici chimed in on the conversation, sharing a video of her and Brown practicing their Thriller tribute in the same performance space.
“MJ thank you for the inspiration you’ve given us all! Thriller 40th Anniversary. @ChrisBrownOfficial you’re a rare breed of this generation. Always fun to rock with you,” she captioned the video.
During Sunday’s award ceremony, Brown won an AMA for the Favorite Male R&B Artist category, but his win was met with opposition from crowd goers. After Kelly Rowland announced that he won, audience members could be heard booing throughout the crowd.
Rowland told the audience to “Chill out” before she sternly defended the R&B singer’s win.
“I wanted to tell Chris, thank you so much for making great R&B music and I want to tell him thank you for being an incredible performer. I’ll take this award — bring it to you. I love you. Congratulations,” she said.
The Game slams Hip-Hop & R&B artists for not supporting Brown
Rowland wasn’t the only star that rushed in to support Brown. The Game also issued a statement about Chris’ scrubbed performance. On Instagram, the rapper said that “all hip-hop and r&b artists should’ve declined” to participate in the AMAs after they scrapped Brown’s performance.
“But we’ll never be that unified,” he added.
“& that’s why they keep & will always use us, suck the culture dry & disrespect us in our faces & behind our backs.”
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