AMAs 2025 Full Recap: Rod Stewart, Janet Jackson and More Rocked the House with Jennifer Lopez as Host

The 2025 AMAs is over, and the winners are likely either heading out to the afterparties or home to polish their new trophies.

Among tonight’s winners include SZA, Becky G, Billie Eilish, Gracie Abrams, Eminem and more.

See PEOPLE’s complete list of 2025 AMAs winners here.

Ahead of his upcoming farewell tour, Rod Stewart was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s AMAs.

Five of his eight kids — Kimberly, Ruby, Renee, Sean and Liam — appeared on stage in a surprise appearance to present him with the award. “Tonight we are here as the biggest and most loving fans of our father, Sir Rod Stewart, or as we all know him, Papa Stew,” said Ruby, revealing their sweet nickname for him.

Rod gave a speech before delivering a performance of 1988’s “Forever Young” and expressed shock toward seeing his children.

“I’m absolutely flabbergasted. I didn’t know they were here, my children,” said Rod, who’s also dad to daughter Sarah and sons Alastair Wallace and Aiden Patrick. “I’ve got eight altogether. I didn’t have a television. That was a little joke.”

Heidi Klum presented the American Music Award for Favorite Male Hip-Hop Artist — and addressed anyone who may not think she’s qualified to hand out the honor.

“Did you know I once made a track with Snoop Dogg? Which officially makes me the most unexpected hip-hop artist to ever come out of Germany. That’s right,” joked the Project Runway alum, who released the song “Chai Tea with Heidi” featuring Snoop in 2022.

The “Gin and Juice” rapper, however, wasn’t nominated this year, and Klum presented the award to Eminem.

Many stars walked the 2025 AMAs red carpet — but how many of them actually slayed their looks?

From Ciara and Reneé Rapp to Shaboozey and Rod Stewart, PEOPLE rounded up all the best-dressed celebrities.

You can see them here.

Janet Jackson celebrated her storied career on the 2025 AMAs stage.

Surrounded by buff dancers in denim, the Grammy winner first delivered a medley performance — opening with “Someone to Call My Lover” following its recent TikTok resurgence. Then, Jackson performed “All for You.”

“I mean no disrespect in any way, but I don’t consider myself an icon. My family, myself, our dream wasn’t ever to be famous. We weren’t raised like that,” she humbly told the crowd in her acceptance speech. “We always had a special love for music, dancing and singing, and fame came with the result of hard work and dedication.”

Gwen Stefani reminded the 2025 AMAs crowd why they fell in love with her — in case they forgot.

Stefani opened her performance (introduced by husband Blake Shelton) with “Swallow My Tears” from her new album, Bouquet, released in November.

Then, she launched into raucous renditions of two of her biggest hits from the mid-2000s: “The Sweet Escape” and “Hollaback Girl.”

As expected, the audience sang every word.

Nikki Glaser and Jennifer Lopez may seem like an unlikely pair of friends, but they just get each other.

Lopez, 55, introduced Glaser, 40, as the presenter of New Artist of the Year, which went to Gracie Abrams, and joked about how they could costar in a film together.

“JLo, my dream is to play your mom in a movie one day,” said the comedian, before playfully encouraging the up-and-comers in the category to freeze time.

“As someone who just turned 35 in March of 2019, my warning to all of the nominees tonight is do not age. The industry hates that,” joked Glaser. “But luckily all of you now have a secret recipe for not aging — money.”

Sporting a bright purple patterned suit, Benson Boone brought his new viral hit “Mystical Magical” to life on the 2025 AMAs stage.

In addition to his powerful vocals, Boone took a moment midway through his performance to flip off the stage — as he does — before walking through the crowd while singing the track.

“Mystical Magical” will appear on Boone’s upcoming American Heart album, out June 20.

Jennifer Lopez opened the show with a major performance.

After singing a snippet of her own hit “Dance Again,” the Hustlers actress delivered top-notch choreography to a medley of the biggest hits of the past year.

Lopez danced to tracks like Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Charli xcx and Billie Eilish’s “Guess,” Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things,” Tinashe’s “Nasty,” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Teddy Swims’ “Lose Control” and more.

In one particularly spicy moment, she even appeared to kiss some of her dancers

Before we get too far into the ceremony, check out the stars’ looks on the 2025 AMAs red carpet.

Megan Moroney, Shaboozey, Machine Gun Kelly, Becky G, Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, Rebecca Black, Kehlani and more have all shown off their fashion on the carpet

Kendrick Lamar led this year’s nominations with 10 in total, followed by Post Malone with eight and Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Shaboozey with seven each.

If the “Not Like Us,” 37, wins in all 10 categories, he’ll tie Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston for most awards in a single year.