Staying with awards, and Usher's good year continued this weekend as he won all four of the American Music Awards he was nominated for. The R&B star left the LA awards ceremony with the gongs for Best R&B-Soul Artist, Best Pop-Rock Singer plus two Best Album Awards.
Other winners at the public-voted AMAs, the main rival to the Grammys in the American music awards calendar, included OutKast, who received three awards, including Best Rap/Hip-Hop Group and Album; Alicia Keys, who was named Favourite Soul/R&B Female; Sheryl Crow, who picked up the favourite Pop-Rock Artist Award; Brooks and Dunn who collected their fourth AMA for Favourite Country Band; and Toby Keith who took the male country artist and album awards.
And it was a good night for country music - stars from the genre taking two of the prestigious overall awards - Gretchen Wilson beat hot favourites Kanye West and Maroon 5 to be named Best Newcomer, while Kenny Chesney took the title for overall Favourite Performer. Chesney joked: "I really didn't think anybody was going to beat Usher tonight".
The biggest surprise of the night was probably the fact Kanye West failed to win any of the three awards for which he was nominated. Clearly disappointed he told reporters: "I feel I was definitely robbed... I was the best new artist this year. I don't know if I'll be back at this award show next year."
Finally, Bon Jovi received a Special Merit Award, which lead singer Jon Bon Jovi called "surreal but much appreciated".