Chris Brown, the noted R&B musician, was declared the Favorite Male R&B Artist at the 2022 American Music Awards, where he was nominated alongside Brent Faiyaz, Giveon, Lucky Daye, and The Weeknd. However, soon after presenter Kelly Rowland announced Brown as the winner, a section of the crowd started booing.

In response, Rowland asked the crowd to “chill out”. Brown was himself set for a Michael Jackson tribute performance at the 2022 American Music Awards, but the organisers later decided to cancel the same. The controversy of alleged child sex abuse by the late King of Pop has rendered him a polarising figure in the world of entertainment.

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After announcing Brown as the winner, Rowland said, “Now Chris Brown is not here tonight so I’m accepting this award on his behalf”. When the boos rang out, she quickly responded, “Excuse me… chill out.”

Rowland honoured Brown by saying, “But I wanted to tell Chris, thank you so much for making great R&B music and I want to tell him thank you for being an incredible performer. I’ll take this award — bring it to you. I love you. Congratulations. And congratulations to all the nominees in this category.”

Check out the crowd’s reaction and Rowland’s comment right here:

Post the cancellation, Brown uploaded a rehearsal video of his performance on Instagram with the caption, “U SERIOUS?”, and later mentioned in the comments, “WOULDVE been the ama performance but they cancelled me for reasons unknown”.

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It is believed that the controversies surrounding Jackson were the reasons behind the AMAs deciding to not go ahead with Brown’s scheduled performance at the event. Fans decided to boo the artist because he chose to pay a tribute to the Beat It and Billie Jean hitmaker.