There’s only One Direction at AMAs

One Direction have proved American girls love British (and Irish) boys — they won the artist of the year title at the American Music Awards, as well as two other accolades.

The boyband were the night’s big winner next to singer Katy Perry at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

Competition in the category was tough, with Iggy Azalea, Beyoncé, Luke Bryan, Eminem, Imagine Dragons, John Legend, Lorde, Katy Perry, and Pharrell Williams all competing for the honour.

One Direction also won favourite band, duo, or group (pop/rock), and favourite album (pop/rock) for Midnight Memories at the awards show, decided by fan votes.

“This has been a real perfect day... America feels like a second home to us,” Liam Payne said onstage with his bandmates when they won the night’s first award. The group released their new album, Four, last week.

Perry also won three honours, including single of the year for ‘Dark Horse’, favourite female artist (pop/rock), and favourite artist (adult contemporary).

While Perry was on tour in Australia, the AMAs was still packed with star power.

Australian star Azalea, the top nominee with six nods, won favourite album (rap/hip-hop) for The New Classic and favourite artist (rap/hip-hop), defeating rap heavyweights Eminem and Drake.

Azalea performed her massive hit, ‘Fancy’, which was nominated for single of the year, and her new song, ‘Beg For It’.

Australian boyband 5 Seconds of Summer won new artist of the year, and performed a cover of The Romantics’ ‘What I Like About You’.

Taylor Swift kicked off the show with a performance portraying herself as a mad woman and maneater by feeding a boy a poisonous apple and holding burning roses during a performance of her new number one song, ‘Blank Space’. She received the first-ever Dick Clark award for excellence from singer Diana Ross.

“To the fans who went out and bought over a million copies of my last three albums... you’re saying you believe in the same thing I believe in — that music is valuable and that music... should be consumed as art,” said Swift, who recently removed her music from streaming service Spotify.