American Music Awards 1997: A Fan Award for Tupac

Original: “Tupac, Alanis, Jewel, Braxton Win At AMAs” · MTV News · no byline · January 28, 1997

On Monday, January 27, 1997, the music industry gathered in Los Angeles for the 24th American Music Awards. Most of the headlines that evening belonged to others: Alanis Morissette and Toni Braxton each won two awards, while Mariah Carey came away empty-handed despite five nominations. Jewel accepted her award as favorite new artist with the remark that she used to live in a car. Right in the middle of it all, the AMAs honored Tupac Shakur, who had passed away four months earlier, as “Favorite Artist, Rap/Hip Hop”.

A Fan Award

For MTV, it was among the few unsurprising results. The AMA nominations were based on radio airplay and sales, with roughly 20,000 music buyers voting on the winners. The MTV report listed every winner, from Eric Clapton and Hootie & the Blowfish to Metallica and the Smashing Pumpkins, through to Garth Brooks and LeAnn Rimes.

Awards and No. 1

The award demonstrated just how large Tupac’s audience was in 1996. All Eyez on Me had been released in February 1996 and had sold millions of copies, while The Don Killuminati entered the charts at No. 1 in November 1996. The Los Angeles Times placed the award right at the beginning of its AMA report. According to the newspaper, singer and actress Brandy accepted the trophy on his behalf.

Buyers Rather Than Critics

The honor came during a week when Tupac was also appearing on movie screens: Gridlock’d opened in late January 1997, and the soundtrack entered the charts at No. 1 shortly thereafter. For the fan site’s archive, the text remains above all a historical document: it places Tupac alongside the pop stars of 1996-as the winner of a vote decided by buyers and not critics.

Note: In the archived text, Tupac’s name was misspelled once as “Tuapc”.