The 52nd American Music Awards will air live on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, 2026, from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, with Queen Latifah serving as host. The show starts at 8:00 PM ET and 5:00 PM PT and will be broadcast on CBS and Paramount+ in the United States.
Latifah’s return gives the amas a familiar face with a long memory: she previously co-hosted the show in 1995, and now steps back in as the ceremony moves into what organizers describe as the largest venue in its history. Tickets are available on AXS, and Paramount+ Premium subscribers will be able to stream the broadcast live through their local CBS affiliate feed on the service.
The lineup is built to span genres and generations. Billy Idol will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award and perform. KAROL G will be honored with the International Artist Award of Excellence and also perform. Darius Rucker will receive the Veterans Voice Award Presented by USAA’s Honor Through Action and perform with his Hootie & the Blowfish bandmates. The list of performers also includes KATSEYE, Keith Urban, Maluma, New Kids on the Block, The Pussycat Dolls and Busta Rhymes, Riley Green, SOMBR, Teddy Swims, Teyana Taylor and Twenty One Pilots.
That mix fits the AMAs’ own pitch: a cross-generational, multi-genre celebration of influential artists and songs of today. The night also links the show to a larger Memorial Day frame through USAA, whose Poppy Wall of Honor has returned to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for seven years and represents every American life lost in the line of duty since World War I. USAA’s Honor Through Action initiative is a five-year, $500 million commitment to the military community.
The tension in this year’s show is not whether it can draw names. It is whether the AMAs can make a star-packed broadcast feel like more than a procession of awards and performances. The presenter list alone stretches from Alysa Liu and Anthony Ramos to Hilary Duff, Jason Derulo, John Legend, Ludacris, Melanie Martinez, Nikki Glaser, Paula Abdul, REI AMI and Russell Dickerson, with Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Hannah Berner, Lisa Rinna, Mariah the Scientist, Matt Rife, Megan Stalter and Paul W. Downs also on deck. If the night works, it will be because the show uses that crowd to build momentum rather than simply fill time.
For Latifah, the return is a full-circle turn; for the AMAs, the answer is simpler. The show is back in Las Vegas, on live network television, with major honors, a crowded stage and a Memorial Day slot built for attention, and it plans to open that night with enough scale to hold it.
