Los Angeles: Singer Selena Gomez, who bagged the Favourite Pop/Rock Female Artist award at the American Music Awards (AMA) here, addressed her personal struggles during her acceptance speech saying that she "doesn't need validation anymore".

"In 2014, this stage was actually the first time that I was authentically 100 per cent honest with you," she started her speech at the ceremony, held on Sunday, in reference to her AMAs performance of "The heart wants what it wants", reports variety.com.

"I think it's safe to say that a lot of you know a lot of my life whether I liked it or not and I had to stop. Because I had everything, and I was absolutely broken. And I kept it together and I swore I would never let you down, but I kept it too much together to where I let myself down. I'm not trying to get validation, nor do I need it anymore," Gomez said during her speech.

Choking back tears while delivering her speech, Gomez said: "If you are broken, you don't have to stay broken."