On what date was the first American Music Awards ceremony held?

The first American Music Awards ceremony was held on February 19, 1974. It was televised by ABC and took place at the Earl Carroll Theatre in New York City, launching a show created by Dick Clark as a competing music-industry awards program.

The inaugural ceremony was hosted by Helen Reddy, Roger Miller, and Smokey Robinson. Reddy had a particularly notable evening: she hosted the show and won the first Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist award. Other early winners included Jim Croce, the Carpenters, Lynn Anderson, and Tony Orlando & Dawn.

The date is easy to confuse with other major music-awards milestones. The 1974 Grammy Awards were held later, on March 2, while the AMAs aired in February. The ceremony’s placement helped ABC establish the new awards show as a prominent alternative after the Grammys moved to CBS. The AMAs later shifted among January and November dates before eventually moving to a different broadcast schedule.