Selena Gomez returned to the stage at the 2017 American Music Awards on Sunday, November 19, for the first time since she underwent a kidney transplant earlier this year.
Julia Michaels introduced the 25-year-old singer’s performance. “If you looked up ‘bravery’ in the dictionary, you would find this next performer’s name,” the “Issues” songstress, 24, said. “She is the epitome of love and strength, and I’m so grateful to get to call this beautiful person my friend.”
Gomez, who debuted a new blonde hairdo on the red carpet, kicked off her new EDM single, “Wolves,” while lying in front of a red car. Clad in a short white nightgown and covered in fake blood, she crawled across the stage at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater as her backup dancers emerged from a bunch of trees. During the second verse, Gomez sat atop the hood of the car while the women around her performed a choreographed routine.
The performance was the Disney alum’s first in more than a year. “The AMAs have been a place where I’ve shared some of my most intimate moments,” she wrote on Instagram on Wednesday, November 15, reflecting upon her emotional 2014 performance of “The Heart Wants What It Wants” and her first-ever AMAs win in 2016, the latter of which came on the heels of her rehab stint.
Gomez revealed in September that she secretly underwent a kidney transplant and that her best friend Francia Raisa was the donor. “She volunteered and did it,” Gomez said of the 29-year-old actress during an interview on the Today show in October. “The fact that she was a match, I mean, that’s unbelievable.”
