Queen Latifah kicked off her 2026 American Music Awards hosting gig with an unforgettable monologue fit for royalty.
The rapper and actress, 56, opened the Monday, May 25, awards show on the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
“I gotta say, it feels so good to be back here hosting the AMAs after 31 years,” Latifah said as she addressed the group. “You think that? A few of BTS wasn’t even born, that’s crazy. That Black don’t crack baby! And in case you would have told me 31 years ago I’d be back on that stage, a stack of awards, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a profession thats taken me from music to film, I probably would’ve checked out you and said, ‘Who you calling a trailblazer?’”
She also shared a message in honor of the country’s military vetereans, because the awards show fell on Memorial Day.
This will not be Latifah’s first time helming the AMAs. She previously made her cohosting debut alongside Tom Jones and Lorrie Morgan in the course of the January 1995 awards show.
“I’m excited to return to the American Music Awards stage to host this yr,” she said in an April press release. “It’s been an incredible yr for music and there isn’t a higher place to have fun than in Vegas.”
Dick Clark Productions CEO Jay Penske was equally enthusiastic about Latifah returning to her hosting role after 31 years.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Queen Latifah back as host of the American Music Awards,” Penske said on the time. “A real powerhouse and trailblazer, she brings a dynamic presence and deep connection to each fans and fellow artists, making her the right selection to guide an evening of celebrating the largest names and most defining moments in music.”
While Latifah has focused more on acting in recent times, she can also be known for her influential hip-hop profession. Nearly twenty years after her most up-to-date studio album, 2009’s Persona, she exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2025 that she is “finding my pen again.”
“We’re going to see what comes of that,” she teased of her potential return to music. “I’m pretty open. There’s rap artists that I’d like to get down with. There’s also rock artists.”
Although Latifah acknowledged that “quite a lot of music is different” now than when she started off within the Nineteen Eighties, she is willing to experiment along with her sound.
“I would like to do some house music. I’ve made house music for the reason that first album,” she explained. “I definitely need to step into that space and have some more fun. I could do reggae. I mean, there’s so many things I feel like I can step into — and naturally, more jazz.”
As for possible collaborations, Latifah shouted out several popular artists she hopes to work with in some unspecified time in the future in the long run.
“I like Doechii. I’d do anything with Doechii,” she told Us. “She is dope. She feels like she’s from my era. She drew from all the nice rappers of my era, of course, and he or she produces. She will be able to do no incorrect in my eyes.”
After joining Megan Thee Stallion during her 2025 Coachella set, Latifah noted, “We don’t have a record together so that would at all times be fun.”
Latifah can also be wanting to hit the studio with Missy Elliott again following their 2009 track, “Fast Automobile.”
“I’d like to work with Missy again,” she shared. “[Missy and I] have a few records that we’ve never put out through the years. I actually have a lot music that I haven’t put out that I would like to place out. I have already got half the collaborations that I’d’ve desired to do.”