Cardi B Makes Triumphant Post-Baby Return with 'I Like It' Performance at AMAs
The rapper is nominated for eight AMAs
She likes stuntin’, she likes shinin’!
Cardi B hit the American Music Awards stage Tuesday night to perform her smash Spanglish single “I Like It” with collaborators Bad Bunny and J Balvin.
After arriving in a wild floral dress with a matching fascinator, the rapper changed into a colorful, flowing gown to kick off the performance on a rotating wheel for her opening verse; she then stripped off the skirt to reveal an intricate romper before launching into some choreographed dance moves that paid homage to her Latin roots.
Earlier in the evening, Cardi (real name: Belcalis Almanzar) took home the first trophy of the night, winning favorite rap/hip-hop artist, thanking husband Offset and their 3-month-old daughter Kulture Kiari in her speech.
“I really want to thank my daughter,” she said. “I was so influenced when I was pregnant with her to be like, I gotta do this; I gotta show people wrong, prove people wrong — because they said I wasn’t gonna make it after I had a baby.”
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Cardi tied with Drake for garnering the most AMAs nods this year. Her eight nominations include: favorite new artist, favorite pop/rock female artist, favorite rap/hip-hop artist, favorite rap/hip-hop song and favorite video (“Bodak Yellow”), favorite soul/R&B song and favorite collaboration (“Finesse” with Bruno Mars) and favorite social artist.
“I Like It” — which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart this summer — is the fourth single off Cardi’s smash debut album, Invasion of Privacy, following breakout hit “Bodak Yellow,” “Bartier Cardi” and “Be Careful.”
Cardi’s AMAs appearance follows an, umm, rather eventful year for the rap star.
Last September, she secretly married Migos rapper Offset. In February, she was nominated for two awards at the Grammys, where she performed “Finesse” with Bruno Mars. Then she dropped Invasion of Privacy in April, just weeks before hitting the Coachella stage.
In July, she and Offset welcomed daughter Kulture and a break from the public eye. But since emerging from maternity leave this fall, Cardi’s been back in the headlines — most notably for her New York Fashion Week brawl with Nicki Minaj last month, then Monday, when she surrendered to police and was arrested and charged with assault and reckless endangerment in connection with a fight earlier this year at a strip club.
Cardi’s AMAs performance is her second public showing since giving birth this summer; on Saturday, she co-headlined the annual Global Citizen Festival in New York City’s Central Park alongside Janet Jackson, Shawn Mendes, Janelle Monáe and The Weeknd.
The 2018 American Music Awards are airing live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. ET.