Photos: Inside the 2025 American Music Awards with Jennifer Lopez, Reneé Rapp & More

Last night saw the star-studded 2025 American Music Awards, featuring Jennifer Lopez returning as AMAs host for the first time in 10 years. The performer, and upcoming star of Kiss of the Spider Woman, kicked off the show in spectacular fashion, delivering a non-stop, breathtaking medley of 23 of the year’s biggest hits with her signature dance moves. Check out photos from the ceremony below!

Though no stranger to the stage, Mean Girls star Reneé Rapp made her live award show performance debut with a sultry performance of “Leave Me Alone” off her highly anticipated sophomore album.

Global icon and former American Music Awards host Gloria Estefan, marled her first performance on the AMAs after more than 30 years, celebrating five decades of her career in music returned to the AMAs stage for the first time in more than 30 years to celebrate five decades of her career in music. With the audience dancing along, she performed a mix of old and new songs including “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” “La Vecina (No Sé Na),” and “Conga."

Blake Shelton made his AMAs performance debut with a powerful performance of “Stay Country or Die Tryin” from his recently released album For Recreational Use Only.

Breakout artist Benson Boone brought his signature dynamic style to the AMAs stage for the first time with a performance of “Mystical Magical” from his upcoming album American Heart.

Fresh from headlining shows across Europe and ahead of embarking on the U.S. leg of her massive “Whirlwind World Tour,” multi-platinum, award-winning country music superstar Lainey Wilson debuted her new single “Somewhere Over Laredo.

Gwen Stefani took the audience on a trip down memory lane to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her album Angel.Music.Baby. Introduced by husband Blake Shelton as his “one and only,” she sang “Swallow My Tears” from her latest album, Bouquet, as well as fan favorites “The Sweet Escape” and “Hollaback Girl.”

Multi-platinum artist and American Music Award winner Gwen Stefani will perform a medley celebrating the 20th anniversary of her album Angel.Music.Baby, including “Hollaback Girl,” and a song from her newest album, Bouquet.

Global phenomenon Janet Jackson received the ICON Award, an honor bestowed upon an artist whose music has had undeniable cultural and global influence over the music industry. The award was introduced by host Lopez, who famously appeared as a backup dancer in Jackson’s 1993 “That’s the Way Love Goes” music video. Jackson proved herself worthy of the ICON Award, performing a medley of viral hit songs “Someone to Call My Lover” and “All For You” that had the audience on their feet; Tasha Smith, Jackson’s good friend and co-star in the Why Did I Get Married? movies, presented her with the award.

As part of the American Music Awards partnership with Easy Day Foundation, the Las Vegas-based nonprofit organization committed to helping Veterans transition to civilian life, Zac Brown was presented with the inaugural Veterans Voice Award for his unwavering support of the veteran community. The evening featured several touching tributes to our troops, including special shout outs to the veterans who were seated in the audience.

For his first awards show performance ever, Alex Warren gave the audience an out of this world rendition of breakout hit “Ordinary,” backed by a 40-person choir;

Becky G and Manuel Turizo performed their recent collaboration “Que Haces” live for the first time, bringing some merengue-pop to the AMAs stage;

Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Sir Rod Stewart closed out the evening with a performance of his timeless classic “Forever Young.” Appearing on the AMAs stage for the first time in over 20 years, he was in for a surprise when several of his family members appeared to present him with the award, which recognizes his incomparable career, body of work, and unparalleled contributions to music for nearly six decades.

Presenters throughout the night included Alix Earle, Ciara, Dan + Shay, Jake Shane, Jon Batiste, Jordan Chiles, Kai Cenat, Megan Moroney, Nikki Glaser, Shaboozey, Tasha Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Wayne Brady, Zac Brown and more.

Billie Eilish, who was the second most nominated artist of the night, won in all seven categories that she was nominated in, including Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Favorite Touring Artist, Favorite Female Pop Artist, Favorite Pop Album, and Favorite Pop Song. Beyoncé took home two awards for Favorite Female Country Arist and Favorite Country Album, marking the first time the 11-time AMA winner has been recognized in the country music category. Take a look at the full list of winners here.

The “2025 American Music Awards” winners are voted entirely by fans. Nominees are based on key fan interactions – as reflected on the Billboard charts – including streaming, album and song sales, radio airplay and tour grosses. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and Luminate, the entertainment industry’s most trusted data partner, and cover the data tracking eligibility period of March 22, 2024, through March 20, 2025.

This year marks the return of the AMAs following October 2024’s top-rated “American Music Awards 50th Anniversary Special” on CBS – named one of the most-watched entertainment specials of the year. As the most-streamed AMAs in the show’s history, the star-studded special surpassed 13M in reach and averaged over 6.1M viewers, an increase of +53% from the last show in 2022 on ABC, making it the largest year over year growth of a music special or award show in the world.

Photos courtesy of the American Music Awards