Kelly Rowland Tells Booing Crowd to ‘Chill Out’ While Accepting American Music Award on Chris Brown’s Behalf

Prior to this year's American Music Awards ceremony, Chris Brown claimed on social media that his Michael Jackson tribute performance had been scrapped.

November 21, 2022

Kelly Rowland told the audience at Sunday night’s American Music Awards ceremony to “chill out” while accepting an award on behalf of Chris Brown, who was not in attendance.

Brown emerged victorious in the Favorite Male R&B Artist category, with Rowland briefly addressing the crowd at the Wayne Brady-hosted ceremony, which is now streaming on Hulu.

“Chris Brown is not here tonight so I’m accepting this word on his behalf,” Rowland said, at which point some noise from the crowd could be heard, including what sounded like booing. In response, Rowland quieted the audience before continuing her praise of Brown’s work.

“Excuse me. … Chill out,” Rowland said. “But I want 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.”

Brown won in the Favorite Male R&B Artist category against fellow nominees Brent Faiyaz, Givēon, Lucky Daye, and The Weeknd. As previously reported, Brown claimed ahead of Sunday’s ceremony that organizers had scrapped his planned Michael Jackson tribute performance.

At the time of this writing, neither Rowland nor Brown had publicly addressed the aforementioned AMAs moment. Complex has reached out to an AMAs rep for comment. This story may be updated.

Other winners at Sunday’s ceremony included Nicki Minaj for Favorite Female Hip-Hop Artist, Taylor Swift as Artist of the Year, and Machine Gun Kelly as Favorite Rock Artist. For a full list of 2022 winners, hit this link.