Ghost Win Big At 2022’s American Music Awards

While the American Music Awards tends to focus on pop music and Billboard Top 40 artists, this year’s ceremony honored one of rock and metal music’s most universally acclaimed modern bands, Ghost. At this year’s award ceremony it was the first time the show introduced a ‘Favorite Rock Album’ category alongside Favorite Rock Artist and Favorite Rock Song. The nominees for Favorite Rock Album included Ghost – Impera, Coldplay – Music of the Spheres, Imagine Dragons – Mercury – Act 1, Machine Gun Kelly – Mainstream Sellout, and Red Hot Chili Peppers – Unlimited Love.

Ultimately Ghost was chosen as the winner for Favorite Rock Album in a decision that was made entirely by fan votes. It’s a bit surprising to see Ghost even make it as a nominee at the American Music Awards, provided the show’s favoritism with pop artists and its odd classification of rock as a genre — Coldplay and Imagine Dragons seem far and away from what most rock fans would categorize as rock. However, upon further examination of the successful year that Ghost has seen with Impera as well as on Tiktok of all places, they’re managed to breakthrough pop-culture more than any modern rock or heavy band this year, so it’s actually quite fitting to see them honored at the American Music Awards.

Moreover, Ghost charted at No.2 with Impera which is remarkably high for a rock band as recent as them, but compared to Machine Gun Kelly and Red Hot Chili Peppers who both achieved No.1 spots with their respective records this year, Ghost still managed to beat them by sheer votes despite not having as much mainstream notoriety.

The American Music Awards also occurred a week after the Recording Academy announced this year’s Grammy nominees. For best metal performance, Ghost are among this year’s nominees alongside Turnstile, Muse, Megadeth, and Ozzy Osbourne. It’s pretty difficult to gauge who will be chosen as the winner for this year’s best metal performance as Ghost, Megadeth, and Ozzy Osbourne are each past Grammy recipients in this exact category. However, Ghost would arguably be the best choice for 2022’s best metal performance Grammy, and having them come out with a win from the American Music Awards will hopefully better their chances at this year’s ceremony.