Drake And Rihanna Lead 2016 American Music Awards Nominees, Chris Brown And Justin Bieber Also Nominated

Singers Drake and Rihanna received a combined 20 American Music Awards nominations for the 2016 edition of the event. The R&B and hip-hop power couple was led by Drake who actually set a record with his latest batch of nominations. In addition, some of the other nominees for the prestigious annual awards show will include Beyonce, Adele, Carrie Underwood, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. However, one has to think the Canadian hip-hop artist will walk away with the most trophies.

According to Billboard, Drake set a new record for most nominations, as he received 13 of them for this year’s AMAs show. Drake’s 13 nominations broke a 32-year record that was held by the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson. MJ’s high was 11 back in 1984, so “Drizzy” has bested him by two for the brand new record.

In 1984, Michael Jackson ended up winning a total of eight awards out of his total nominations. It’s important to note that Jackson’s nominations all came for his work on the hit album “Thriller” and all of the songs he was nominated for were solo works.

Drake, real name Aubrey Graham, received a total of just nine nominations combined for the 2010 through 2015 AMAs. Ironically, he has never won an American Music Award. However, he already has a Grammy Award to his credit, as he took home the award for Best Rap Album for his work “Take Care” in 2013. Now he’ll attempt to add even more hardware to his collection.

Drake sets an #AMAs record for most noms in a single year with 13, surpassing Michael Jackson’s record https://t.co/HirCEynhU1 pic.twitter.com/bX7HY4Z4CA

— billboard (@billboard) October 10, 2016

The majority of the nominations for Drake this year come from his highly-praised and well-received album, “Views.” The 2016 album featured the hit songs “One Dance” and “Hotline Bling,” both of which reached near the top of the U.S. Billboard charts. “One Dance” hit the No. 1 spot, while “Hotline Bling” reached just a spot lower at its peak. As of August, the album had sold over 1 million copies for the Canadian star.

Among the hip-hop star’s AMA nominations this year are Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist, Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist and Collaboration of the Year. In the collaboration category, he actually has double the chances to win as two songs he’s a part of are nominated. One of those is “One Dance” by Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla. The other is “Work” by Rihanna featuring Drake.

Speaking of Rihanna, the R&B singer is second amongst all nominees with seven of her own. She’s vying with Drake in the Artist of the Year category. In addition, she’s nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist, Favorite Video with Drake, and Favorite Soul/R&B Female Artist. Many of her nominations tie in with those for Drake as the two worked together on the hit song “Work.”

Drake and Rihanna had been romantically leaked years ago and then again more recently. According to People, the duo went out on a date just a night after appearing together on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards. There have been all sorts of rumors flying about whether the couple is together or not, including recent speculation that Rihanna was seeing her ex-boyfriend hip-hop star Travis Scott. In addition, there’s been rumors she was seeing another former flame, Chris Brown.

Brown is also nominated for this year’s American Music Awards show. He’s only up in the Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist category with strong competition from Bryson Tiller and The Weeknd. Still, if there’s any merit to the rumors that have been going on, it will be interesting to see if all three artists attend this show and whether or not anything goes down.

In addition to Chris Brown, Drake and Rihanna all receiving nominations, there’s plenty of other musical stars in the running for trophies too. Justin Bieber and Adele are tied for the third-most nominations this year of artists, with five apiece. Singer Beyonce and group The Chainsmokers have four each, while Bryson Tiller, Twenty One Pilots, Fetty Wap, The Weeknd, and Carrie Underwood each have three.

The American Music Awards 2016 edition will take place live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on November 20 with ABC televising all the coverage. Now the question is how many awards will the “Jumpman” artist leave the show with?

[Featured Image by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images]