The Controversial Fast Fashion Company That Sponsored Anitta's 2022 AMAs Performance

If there's one international superstar who has had one accomplished year, it's Anitta. The singer released her fifth studio album, "Versions of Me," which was a groundbreaking multilingual project, earning herself a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. As if that wasn't an accolade in and of itself, she also made her home country of Brazil proud, being the first Brazilian artist to take home an MTV Music Video Award. 

The public discourse surrounding Anitta breaking into the American music scene was discussed in major media outlets such as an April 2022 feature in The New York Times, but with a healthy Instagram following of 63 million and counting, she doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

All of this to say, it makes perfect sense why the "Envolver" singer was one of the many chosen to perform at this year's American Music Awards, where she was one of the best dressed stars. Though when it was time for her to hit the stage, many took to Twitter to air-out thoughts, not about the actual performance itself, but about the questionable brand that sponsored it.

Before Anitta took home the American Music Award for favorite female Latin artist, she and Missy Elliott came together to do a live performance of their song, "Lobby." 

While host Wayne Brady and actress Niecy Nash introduced the artists to the stage, they made sure to cite the performance's sponsor, fast-fashion clothing brand Shein, who Anitta has an already-established working partnership with.

As we reported this year, Shein has a reputation for being insanely affordable and therefore massively popular. But their unethical working conditions and harmful contributions to the environment are facts that simply cannot be ignored.

Twitter seemed to think so, too, because the tweets about disapproval of the collaboration keep rolling in.

"[N]ot sponsored by shein," one user tweeted with a series of sobbing emojis. "that explains a lot of the looks tn [tonight]."

Another user looked at the show as a whole and seemed to insinuate the Shein sponsorship was as much of a let-down as certain award winners. "The AMAs are literally a joke. The new artist nominees, MGK winning the rock category, and the Shein sponsorship???? Wtf is this garbage?"

Anitta and ABC have yet to address these viewer concerns.