Fans Are Fuming Over The Astroworld Tribute At The AMAs

Only weeks after a devastating crowd crush during rapper Travis Scott's annual Astroworld music festival on November 5 resulted in the deaths of 10 people and injured hundreds of other attendees, the 2021 American Music Awards attempted to pay their respects to victims and their loved ones. During the November 21 award show broadcast, a segment featuring singer and iconic "Moesha" actor Brandy expressing messages of empathy and unity regarding the tragedy and its aftermath aired right before the winner of the "Best Pop Album" category was announced.

During a ceremony interlude, Brandy spoke directly to the camera while standing amid attendees at the Microsoft Theater, the show's Los Angeles 2021 AMAs venue. "All of us who love music were affected by the tragic events at the concert in Houston," Brandy began, referencing the Astroworld concert. "We mourn for the victims, and our hearts go out to their loved ones." After conveying condolences, she implored those watching in person and at home to "fully recognize the precious gift of enjoying live music," touching on the dwindling end of the current COVID-19 pandemic, before adding that live music, on principle, "can bring us joy, and when needed, help us heal."

However, according to social media users tuning in to the 2021 AMAs, it seems efforts made by producers to shoehorn a brief mention of the Astroworld tragedy proved to be too little, too late.

Though Brandy's brief homage to the November 5 Astroworld tragedy was presumably meant as a heartfelt moment of connectivity found within the depths of grief, social media users tuning into the 2021 American Music Awards responded with unrelenting criticism. Though Brandy herself wasn't subject to criticism or ire from viewers at home, at least one person took umbrage of her as the messenger. "Of course they make a black person mention astroworld," one Twitter user wrote, a possible reference to how Travis Scott, a Black rapper, has largely been the target of blame for the tragedy, rather than the Live Nation, the live events company which was credited as the concert's biggest producer and has a longstanding history of safety violations, per NPR.

Others took to Twitter to criticize both the brevity of the Astroworld tribute, which took up little more than 30 seconds of air time, and the perception of it being little more than an afterthought. "[The] astroworld shoutout hahahahah so insensitive ANYWAY BEST POP ALBUM!" read one criticism. "If you aren't going to address it properly, don't even mention it. Just to smile and go into the next act," echoed another tweet.