Usually the awards show is a chance for those who turn up to walk away with a gong, but this year several acts and presenters took aim at the President-elect

Give credit to the American Music Awards for being honest. The show, which ran its 44th edition on Sunday night, eschews “best” accolades, instead honoring “favorite” artists and songs; nominees are culled from sales, not artistic pretensions, and the winners are determined by online polling. Its aim? To be a blithe celebration of the root word of “pop,” giving awards to artists who show up.

But 2016 isn’t a typical year, and Green Day – the Bay Area punks turned alt-rock elder statesmen – lit up the night with a protest of United States president-elect Donald Trump. During a speedy run-through of their rumbling single Bang Bang, from their recent album Revolution Radio, the band inserted a bit of Born To Die, a 1982 single by the Texas hardcore outfit MDC that was updated a few weeks ago; that song’s original opening chant, “No war, no KKK, no fascist USA,” was amended so that it called out Trump.

References to the current political situation peppered the night: Supermodel Chrissy Teigen made a bleeped-out reference to the “really interesting, fucked-up, fucking election” while she introduced her husband John Legend’s performance of the anthem-in-waiting Love Me Now, mogul-slash-reality star Mark Cuban and brassy-voiced Tony winner Idina Menzel cracked jokes about not being invited to the inauguration, Sting accepted his Merit Award with a speech calling himself a “musical migrant” and co-host Jay Pharoah offered up a few wince-worthy Trump impersonations. But for the most part, the night stayed fairly on message, showcasing a clutch of the songs that have been dominating radio playlists and streaming-music charts for much of 2016 amidst awkward acceptance speeches and cheesy laugh lines delivered by Pharoah and co-host Gigi Hadid.

Bruno Mars kicked off the show with 24K Magic, the lead single from his just-released album of the same name. That tribute to 80s robo-funk might be in the model of his mega-collaboration with producer Mark Ronson, Uptown Funk, but its being one of the few big singles this year to have something resembling a pulse and Mars’s infectious energy and performance chops served as a high bar for the rest of the show.

A couple of moments reached the opener’s energy. Prince’s sister, Tyka Nelson, gave a fiery, teary speech accepting the Top Soundtrack award for Purple Rain, which got a sales jolt when the storied pop genius passed away in April. Selena Gomez accepted favorite pop/rock female artist with an emotional speech talking about her return from the success-borne brink. Fifth Harmony powered through the girl-power anthem That’s My Girl amid post-apocalyptic rubble.

The dreary cloud that has settled over much of pop, however, made the show drag at times. Bro-EDM duo The Chainsmokers, who took home favorite artist, performed their acidly laconic Closer, which spent all of the fall in the Billboard Hot 100’s top spot until ceding it last week to Rae Sremmurd’s Black Beatles. The song’s loping beat got a bit of a jolt from Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, but that did little to help its utter charmlessness.

Alt-rock hybridists (and two-time winners) Twenty One Pilots’ medley of their two 2016-dominating hits, the grimacing Heathens, and the petulant Stressed Out, highlighted the dourness common to both. Maroon 5’s limpid Don’t Wanna Know turned into an endurance test for Adam Levine’s falsetto, although Kendrick Lamar’s presence was welcome. Even the hyperactive DJ Khaled’s cameo-studded Do You Mind was more slow jam than takeover attempt, with August Alsina’s sinewy hook sounding pretty but feeling stuck on a loop.

Artist of the Year Ariana Grande took to an ad hoc jungle for Side To Side, her saucy duet with Nicki Minaj; R&B miserablist The Weeknd performed his paranoid Starboy inside a makeshift ice cave. Lady Gaga, known in the past for her tendon-defying footwear, showcased the real-girl side of her Joanne-era persona by performing the power ballad Million Reasons barefoot.

Sting led the night’s spate of sensitive dudes with feeling-stuffed songs. The Merit Award winner performed I Can’t Stop Thinking About You, a chiming track from his new album 57th & 9th, as well as two tracks by his former band The Police, the muscular Message In A Bottle and the still-creepy Every Breath You Take. One Direction’s Niall Horan was the best of the guy-with-guitar lot, his feather-light This Town showcasing his sweetly strong voice.

Drake didn’t perform during the show, but he was certainly present, and he brought along a no-show. Nominated for a record 12 awards, he wound up winning four, including favorite rap/hip-hop song for Hotline Bling and favorite rap/hip-hop artist. While accepting the latter, he promoted his upcoming playlist (think of it as a mixtape for the Apple Music era) More Life and dropped a vague threat to any and all comers: “Watch how you speak on my name.”

But perhaps the Canadian actor-rapper’s biggest moment of the night came when a new Apple Music ad debuted. An answer ad of sorts to the spring spot where Taylor Swift’s excitement about the hyperactive Jumpman led to her tumbling from a treadmill, this clip showed Drake cooling down from a particularly intense workout by belting out her mean-girl broadside Bad Blood. It was supposed to be funny, but given the rancorous feelings that have pervaded 2016’s politics as well as its pop, it felt awfully fitting.