JUSTIN BIEBER took home THREE trophies last night at the "American Music Awards" . . . including the night's first award, Favorite Male Artist - Pop/Rock.

He told the crowd "I want to say this is for all the haters who thought maybe I was here for one or two years, but I feel like I'm going to be here for a very long time."

Other winners included:

NICKI MINAJ who won TWO awards . . . Best Artist and Album in the Rap/Hip-Hop category

and  Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen, Carrie Underwood, Linkin Park and David Guetta.