American Music Awards: One Direction wins big, Dion pays tribute to Paris victims

One Direction might have debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts behind Justin Bieber, but they won the top award at Sunday’s American Music Awards.

The band won the top award at last year’s show — as a quintet with Zayn Malik. They also won favourite duo or group — pop/rock on Sunday night.

Bieber, who won best collaboration with Diplo and Skrillex, closed the night with a medley of his hits, including Sorry, Where Are U Now and What Do You Mean. Purple laser lights beamed from the stage as the singer danced and sang for the loud audience. He ended it drenched after standing under a waterfall. Billboard announced on Sunday his new album, Purpose, will debut at No. 1 on its charts Monday after selling 649,000 equivalent albums. Celine Dion paid tribute to the victims of the recent Paris attacks by singing Edith Piaf’s Hymne a L’Amour in French as some audience members cried. Nicki Minaj was also a double winner, taking home favourite artist and album — rap/hip-hop. Taylor Swift, who is out of the country shooting a music video, was the top nominee with six. She won song of the year for Blank Space, favourite album — pop/rock for 1989 and favourite artist — adult contemporary Swift lost favourite female artist — pop/rock to Ariana Grande.

Bryan beat out Jason Aldean and Sam Hunt, who won new artist of the year.

Host Jennifer Lopez kicked off the AMAs in a dance routine that highlighted some of the year’s biggest hits like “Where Are U Now,” ‘’Anaconda,” ‘’Uptown Funk!” and “Hotline Bling.” She also impressively sang in almost a cappella form.

“I think I owe a lot of this to my nonna who made sure to remind me that she voted. She goes, ‘Ariana, I went on the computer, I voted, so I think you’ll win,’” Grande said in an Italian accent.

The three-hour show, which aired on ABC, also included a clip from the upcoming “Star Wars” film. Performers included Coldplay, Gwen Stefani, Alanis Morissette, 5 Seconds of Summer and Carrie Underwood, who won favorite female artist — country.