Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani break silence after backlash for controversial AMAs performances

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani have addressed the backlash they received following their controversial performances at the 2025 AMAs on Monday.

Fans of the couple were left disappointed after they discovered they had “been lied to” as neither Blake nor Gwen performed live at the Las Vegas ceremony.

It was revealed that the couple had pre-taped their performances after fans who attended the live event shared videos on social media of the duo’s sets playing on a big screen inside Fontainebleau instead of them appearing on stage.

“She’s not here!,” one TikTok user penned alongside a clip of Gwen’s performance projected onto a large screen behind the stage.

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Blake’s set confused matters further as he was photographed on the red carpet in the same outfit that he donned during his pre-recorded performance of his single “Stay Country Or Die Tryin'”.

“The craziest part of the AMAs last night was being told ‘and here’s Blake Shelton Live’ only for them to light up the stage like he’s there, and never saying to us it was pre recorded. THEN, doing the same thing with Gwen Stefani!,” penned another TikTok user.

They continued: “I felt like I was in a simulation looking around for him!”

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Statement

Following the backlash, Blake took to X to address the criticism he and Gwen received for not performing live at the awards show.

“Just now seeing these stories about Gwen and I pretaping our performances for the AMA’s. We came and performed when the show asked us to.. Really nothing else to say,” he wrote.

While Gwen hasn’t directly addressed the controversy, she did repost Blake’s message on X.

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Blake did perform live when he returned to The Voice on May 20 for the season 27 finale.

He sang a rendition of his single, “Texas”, two years after leaving the show following 23 seasons as a coach.

He announced his exit in October 2022, revealing he wanted to spend more time with Gwen and stepsons Kingston, 18, Zuma, 16, and Apollo, 11. He officially left The Voice in May 2023.

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In a recent interview, Blake revealed he already has his summer planned, telling People he was “looking forward to the kids being out of school,” adding that the family “pretty much have [their] summers wide open.” 

He explained: “We both have a few shows here and there, but nothing that’s tying us down to keep us from going and doing something fun. We don’t have any plans, which is our favorite plan.” 

Gwen joined him for a duet on his latest album, For Recreational Use Only, 10 years after they met on the set of The Voice as coaches.

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Blake shared with the publication that the couple actually recorded two more duets for the album but ultimately had to cut one of them. 

“We were both so fired up about both of them that we ended up holding one back for the next project,” he said.

While Blake’s latest album has become his worst-performing record in his 24-year career, debuting at number 46 on the Billboard 200 charts, he did enjoy his 30th number one hit with his single, “Texas”.