Did you miss the AMA Awards this year? That’s okay… Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani did too. This past Monday night, the AMAs – hosted by Jennifer Lopez – aired on CBS, and the awards show seemed to sneak up on a lot of people. Having it on Memorial Day likely played into that, but the good news is that those that didn’t watch it didn’t miss out on much. Heck, even most of the artists nominated for awards, and even those performing, weren’t there on Monday night. The biggest viral moment from the night was probably the side-eye heard round the world that Shaboozey gave Megan Moroney. It seems as though all of that has since been resolved, but country music fans are still upset with how the country categories unraveled. Post Malone and Beyoncé (two non-country artists) won Favorite Male and Female Country Artist respectively, and other winners included the likes of Dan + Shay for Favorite Country Duo (gross) and Beyoncé winning Favorite Country Album with Cowboy Carter. It’s a fan voted awards show… so I don’t know if we can trust the fans anymore. Another point of contention for the evening was when Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton “performed,” when in reality… their performances were pre-taped. A number of fans that were actually in attendance to see the AMAs in person felt ripped off, as Shelton and Stefani were billed as live performers. It sure looked live for those watching on TV, but as you’ll see in this video below, Stefani’s “Swallow My Tears” was filmed prior to the actual show itself: @alywinder LIKE WHATTT… why would they say performing live when they aren’t even here?? #gwenstefani #ama #livetv #dissapointme #taylorswift ♬ original sound – Aly Winder No Gwen Stefani in sight. And her husband, Blake Shelton, also pre-taped his rendition of “Stay Country or Die Tryin’.” Once again, the AMAs stated that this performance happened “live from the 2025 American Music Awards,” when in reality, the country artist just recorded the performance on the same stage that the AMAs was happening on that night. Take a look: @savewithfelix @Gwen Stefani performance was pre recorded as well #amaawards #blakeshelton #gwenstefani #jlo ♬ original sound – Save with Felix Though it doesn’t make much of a difference for those watching at home, that’s a shame for those that paid their hard-earned money to physically go to the AMAs expecting to see some of their favorite artists. At the same time, it’s extremely common for award shows to pre-tape certain performances, especially when they rely on elaborate sets that cannot quickly be arranged during a commercial break. Blake Shelton evidently started hearing the noise about he and his wife doing pre-taped performances, which led him to take to X late last night to attempt to clear the air on why they did not perform live: “Just now seeing these stories about Gwen and I pre-taping our performances for the AMAs. We came and performed when the show asked us to… really nothing else to say.” Just now seeing these stories about Gwen and I pretaping our performances for the AMA’s. We came and performed when the show asked us to.. Really nothing else to say. — Blake Shelton (@blakeshelton) May 28, 2025 Hmm… passing the blame over to the American Music Awards? If that’s true, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani were just doing what they were asked to do. Apparently the AMAs didn’t want to mess with the often hectic scheduling and stage flipping that multiple live performances can bring on. But if you are going to pre-tape artists that you advertise as “live performers,” maybe give a heads up to the fans?The post Blake Shelton Responds To Criticism That He & Gwen Stefani Pre-Taped Their Performances At AMAs first appeared on Whiskey Riff.