2012 American Music Awards: Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Justin Bieber lead nominations

It’s getting near the end of the year, and that only means one thing: more opportunities for networks to air more awards shows than any average human being can count! So what one are we focusing on today? It’s none other than the American Music Awards, which will be coming on ABC on November 18.

Who are the nominees? Let’s just say that for the time being, they are very much the usual suspects that you would anticipate being up for some gold for the show. Newly-appointed “American Idol” judge Nicki Minaj has tied Rihanna with four nominations for the most-honored artist from the show thus far, but some of the other recipients of three nominations include Drake, Usher, One Direction, Maroon 5, and Justin Bieber. (Bieber was the big winner from the 2010 edition of the show.)

This time around, we have a feeling that either Bieber or the “X Factor” UK sensation will be the top recipients of awards on the night. Why? The AMAs are voted on by the fans, and the majority of the voters these days are passionate teenagers hoping to support some of their favorite artists in just about every way that they can. This is why One Direction scored so big earlier this year at the MTV Video Music Awards, though it should be noted at the moment that neither Bieber nor One Direction are ironically American. Here’s another fun fact: one of the recipients of the top nominations, over half of them were born outside of the United States. With that, shouldn’t we just rename this the International Music Awards and start being a little bit more inclusive?

What do you think about this nominations, or is the AMAs in your mind just one of those shows that is really rather irrelevant until the day it actually airs?