A total of 20 awards representing eight categories of music will be presented on Nov. 18 during the live telecast of the 35th Annual "American Music Awards" on ABC from the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles. Comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel will host the awards show for the fourth time.

This is the seventh year the "American Music Awards" have recognized the Contemporary Inspirational category. Kirk Franklin took home the honor last year, and other past recipients include Yolanda Adams, Avalon, Steven Curtis Chapman, Mary Mary and MercyMe. The other "American Music Award" categories are Pop/Rock, Country, Soul/Rhythm & Blues, Rap/Hip-Hop, Latin, Alternative, and Adult Contemporary music. There also is an award for Soundtracks and Favorite Breakthrough Artist.

For the first time, members of the public will be able to vote for the nominated artists online at ama.abc.com. Voting was opened on Oct. 9 and will be available through Nov. 2. Winners were previously selected by a national survey of approximately 20,000 people.

Initial nominees were selected by using ballots containing names compiled from data supplied by the music industry trade publication, Radio & Records and Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks retail music sales. The ballots were then sent to a national sampling of more than 15,000 people based on what type of music they listen to, what they buy and how many albums they purchase per year. The sampling also took into account geographic location, age, sex and ethnic origin, according to ABC's Web site. The top three vote getters were determined to be the nominees for this year's American Music Awards.