What shape is the American Music Awards trophy?

The American Music Awards trophy is a crystal pyramid. Its distinctive design is a clear, tall pyramid mounted on a base, making it easy to distinguish from the Grammy’s gramophone and the Academy Awards’ Oscar statuette.

Museum records describing actual American Music Awards trophies identify the material more precisely as Lucite, a clear acrylic plastic. A Smithsonian example presented to Whitney Houston in 1987 is described as a tall Lucite pyramid on a cube-shaped black-painted wooden base. Other surviving trophies are similarly described as clear pyramid-shaped awards.

The trophy’s design has remained strongly associated with the AMAs since the ceremony began in the 1970s. Its geometric silhouette also appears in visual references to the awards, including stage and promotional designs.

The word “crystal” is the conventional quiz answer because the trophy looks like a glass or crystal sculpture. Technically, “Lucite pyramid” or “clear acrylic pyramid” is more exact for many documented examples, but “crystal pyramid” is the single answer a fair trivia quiz expects.