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One Direction win big at American Music Awards

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One Direction won artist of the year at the American Music Awards, as well as scooping two other awards for favourite band, duo or group and favourite album for Midnight Memories. All members of the five-piece band – Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson – united on stage looking dapper in black at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles for the annual ceremony.

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One Direction were the big winners at Sunday night'sAmerican Music Awards

"This has been a real perfect day ... America feels like a second home to us," Liam said onstage on Sunday night with his band mates when they won the night's first award. "It's amazing because we worked so hard on these last two albums," he added. The British heart-throbs, who performed their latest single Night Changes at the fan-voted show, were the night’s big winners, alongside pop star Katy Perry.

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Taylor Swift was presented the first-ever Dick Clark Award for Excellence by Diana Ross

Katy also won three accolades, picking up single of the year for no. one hit Dark Horse, favourite female artist – pop/rock and favourite artist – adult contemporary, although the singer wasn't there to pick up her awards as she is currently on tour in Australia. Breakthrough newcomer Iggy Azalea beat Eminem and Drake to the gong for favourite rap/hip-hop album for The New Classic and favourite rap/hip-hop artist. "This award is the first award I've ever won in my entire life, and it means so much to me that it is for best hip-hop because that's what inspired me to move to America and pursue my dreams, and it's what helped me when I was a teenager to escape and to get through my life and to better times," the 24-year-old Australian rapper said, as her mentor T.I. stood beside her.

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Sam Smith won favourite male artist at the AMAs

"And it means so much that I can stand here against Eminem and Drake and come out with this," she continued.

Sam Smith won favourite male artist while Taylor Swift received the first-ever Dick Clark Award for Excellence, presented by Diana Ross. "To the fans who went out and bought over a million copies of my last three albums, what you did by going out and investing in music and albums is you're saying you believe in the same thing I believe in – that music is valuable and that music should be consumed in albums and albums should be consumed as art and appreciated," said Taylor, who recently removed her music from streaming service Spotify.

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