It all started with Diana Ross, who was receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the AMAs last night, staying on her feet during Tracee Ellis Ross’s entire opening monologue. That’s Miss Diana Ross. Not a legend in that moment but a proud mother, refusing to sit down. It was so f-cking cute I think it affected the way I watched the entire show. Like I could have been way more mad about how many times the f-cking Chainsmokers showed up – too f-cking many – but Diana and Tracee put me in a great mood. And Tracee kept up that great mood throughout the night. Is that my bias? Probably. I love her. If you’ve been reading this site a while you know how much I love her, how much I love black-ish, and have I mentioned how much I love her? But she kept things moving. And she was having a great time. And that’s a fine balance in a host. You want them to be having a good time. You don’t want them to be James Franco. But, maybe unfairly, you need to BELIEVE that they’re having a good time and not forcing the good time (Jimmy Fallon). Tracee navigated that beautifully. And you can imagine how tricky that would have been considering her mother is THE Diana Ross and was the show closer. But this has been Tracee’s accomplishment – to build a flourishing career that’s independent from her mother’s while not entirely rejecting her mother. Also, every outfit she wore last night (I think there were 12 of them) was fire. My favourite, of course, was this one – the white suit and the shirt borrowed from her ma. 

How about Diana Ross though? When they started playing Mahogany during the montage, I almost lost my mind. Because this is a song I associate with my mother. That’s the song that I hear in my head when I imagine my mother leaving my father in the 70s, in a leather trench coat over knee-high leather boots, her hair perfectly blown out and her nails long and red, walking away determinedly. I have no idea if it actually happened that way, but I do know she has that outfit. And whenever I used to see it in her closet, Diana Ross’s Mahogany would play in my head and it became its own movie. This is the place that music can have in our lives. 

Is it still a trip though that Ashlee Simpson is part of Diana Ross’s life? Like that they’re related? Ashlee Simpson is the mother of Diana Ross’s grandbaby. This will never not f-ck me up. Although seeing Evan Ross in his gold boots, I get it, I mean I do get it. 

And this will f-ck you up too, the video that actually turned Kathleen into a zombie last night: