The Queen is back.
Over 30 years after Queen Latifah made her hosting debut alongside Tom Jones and Lorrie Morgan at the American Music Awards back in 1995, the hip-hop icon finally has her shot at running it back again in Las Vegas, and she’s going it alone this time, shepherding a show slated to include the likes of Sombr, Billy Idol and Katseye.
After spending her entire adult life in the spotlight, Queen Latifah has amassed a remarkable list of firsts: the first female rapper nominated for an acting Academy Award for her role as Matron “Mama” Morton in Chicago, also the first female rapper to receive a Kennedy Center Honors and the first hip-hop artist to earn a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This fall she’ll add another milestone when she’s inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence awardee, and she’ll be joining The Voice as a coach.
This week, though, her focus is on the AMAs and on how she plans to bring her trademark warmth, wit and charisma to the ceremony.
Below, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Latifah about her memories of that first AMAs hosting gig in the ‘90s, what she’s looking forward to at the show next week, and her reaction to her Rock Hall induction.
What are your memories of co-hosting the AMAs in 1995?
It all happened so fast back then, but what I do remember was I had a team. There was several of us and we had to move from this place to that place. Just being with Tom Jones was one of the most amazing things to me. People say a lot about this guy. It was just overwhelmingly exciting to be a part of it and wear all these costumes and host and look at the crowd. I was 25, you know what I mean?
All of it was a lot for me. All of it was exciting for me. I have so many pictures from that hosting gig. There was so many stars in the house that I was fans of from Mariah [Carey] to Stevie [Wonder] to on and on. Meeting people you’ve been fans of for years is so exciting. The energy was great, but it’s me this time, so I’m going to have to make sure the energy goes to all the artists that are going to be on that stage. From New Kids on the Block to Pussycat Dolls, everybody needs to feel that energy from me when they see me. I can give it to them and the audience is going to give it to them.
There is an excitement that comes with your presence. Sombr doing his dance with you at the Grammys this year was my favorite part of the entire ceremony.
Did you see that? The cool thing was I got to just be a music fan. I love being able to just be there and enjoy music. I was privy to a very special night, and I’m about to be privy to another very special night. I can’t wait to get to Vegas, and read through this whole script, and look at the run-throughs of everybody practicing for this big moment.
It’s so exciting. Out of the millions of artists in the world, we are the ones that are going to have this stage and be able to perform in front of the world. I know they’re all going to try to knock it out of the park. I want to see what tricks they’ve got up their sleeves and who’s just in the zone.
What are you looking forward to the most?
I like to see the younger artists watch the artists who’ve been around the block a few times do it. There’s a certain comfort level when you’ve been rocking shows like this for a while. When you’re an up-and-coming artist who hopes to do this for years and years to come, like maybe an Olivia Dean, you get to see someone who’s been doing this forever and [they’ll] say, “OK, that’s what I got to do. I got to be comfortable like that.” You get to take a little tidbit here and there that you can keep and use for yourself and make sure you’re one of these longevity artists 30 years from now doing the same thing.
It always feels like the AMAs are a fun time for the artists. Plus, being in Las Vegas in such a large venue with fans in attendance, it’s like an eclectic festival.
It’s music, you should be able to have fun with it. And you’re right. It is a different Vegas. Today’s Vegas is not even the Vegas from when I was younger. You can take the whole family to Vegas. There’s like a family vacay that you can have in Vegas on a normal basis. You can live in Vegas, it’s all good. I’m hoping that festival vibe comes across, because that’s what it should be.
I took some friends of mine on tour years ago whose cousins live in Vegas. Back then, I had my motorcycles on tour. My bus was towing my bikes. I got to ride my motorcycles. I went to church with their family, had a barbecue, and I was like, “This is nothing like The Strip, you know what I mean?” There’s normal life here in Las Vegas. I got a glimpse into that a long time ago, but The Strip is a pretty fly place to be.
Congratulations on your Rock Hall induction. Did that come as a surprise?
I’m excited about it, and I’m getting more excited because there’s so many different family members and friends who’ve heard about it that are calling from all over the place. I always know when it’s something different when I get calls from every direction. It’s not just a small thing that means something to me. It really means something to a lot of different people, and we can have whole conversations about it. I’m just fortunate that I’m in there. I had nothing to do with it, so thank you everyone who wanted me to be a part of it. Thank you very much.
