The 37th Annual American Music Awards took place on November 22, 2009 at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles, California.

In response to Adam Lambert's performance of his song "For Your Entertainment" at the end of the ceremony broadcast, the Parents Television Council, a conservative television watchdog group, urged viewers to complain to the FCC if living in an area where the performance was shown before 10 p.m. local time.

[6] In a report by Lambert, he had been scheduled to also perform on fellow ABC programs Good Morning America, Jimmy Kimmel Live!

This move was subsequently criticized by those who felt that the awards committee was piggybacking on the hype of Jackson's death for ratings and media coverage purposes, and that his nomination was unfair to artists who had brought out newer material to equal success, such as Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.

Not helping matters was that Number Ones was a greatest-hits compilation released in 2003 (six years before that year's awards show), and not only had Jackson not released any new material since "One More Chance" (the sole new recording on that album), but he had already won several American Music Awards for the songs featured on Number Ones.