The MTV Video Music Awards have come a long way from its introduction in 1984. The awards have always attracted the biggest stars and its ratings have continually gone up the charts. Moreover it has been accepted as a legitimate award show regardless of all the controversies it has been instrumental in creating. Industry insiders and critics agree on the fact that winning a VMA does not mean as much as actually being able to perform at the function. MTV has been accused by critics of promoting the show so much that viewers find it hard to disregard its importance as an awards event. Just like the average reality show, celebs with disparate personalities are pushed on stage together and expected to come up with something or anything that will up the show’s rating. The show has been known for all the things that money can buy-eccentric make up, scripted jokes, lip-syncing artists and ridiculous designer costumes that sometimes might even question the viewer’s morality. MTV intended the show to cater mainly to its teenage following, but now after more than two decades since its birth, the show lives up to its hype and still delivers all that is expected of it, tributes, controversies, sucker punches, nip slips, lip-syncs, the whole works. This reality show is all about pop stardom in the music-video era.
Interesting trivia on the VMAs
- The first MTV Video Music Awards ceremony was held on September 14, 1984.
- Madonna holds the record for walking away with the highest number of awards at the VMAs. She has been awarded the shiny astronaut 20 times in her career as a musician.
- 1991 was a rather physical year at the VMAs with Poison’s Bret Michaels and C.C. DeVille ending up throwing punches at each other following a conflict between them.
- At the 1992 VMAs Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain spits on Elton john’s piano thinking it belonged to Axl Rose with whom he had a dispute backstage. Cobain later admitted being shocked to see Elton John perform November Rain with Guns N Roses on the very same piano he spat on.
- In 1997, Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear announced that he was leaving the band half way through their performance and then introduced his replacement, Franz Stahl who had been a member of the band Scream with Dave Grohl.
- MTV VMA 1999 plays host to a first time meeting between the mothers of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.
- The VMAs in 1999 saw some of the biggest names in the industry perform at the show, there were performances by Kid Rock, Run-D.M.C., Aerosmith, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Backstreet Boys, ‘N sync and Britney Spears.
- Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford and his bodyguard were sentenced to a night in jail after climbing up the scaffolding of the set at the VMAs in 2000.
- At the 2001 VMAs Britney Spears performed I’m a slave 4 U while dancing in a cage with a live tiger and soon after wrapping an albino Burmese python around her neck.
- The 2002 VMAs had a laugh at the expense of Michael Jackson when the ‘King of Pop’ misinterpreted Britney spears eulogy that she considered him the Artist of the millennium as an actual award that was being bestowed upon him. Michael would’ve had the last laugh had he been alive, MTV posthumously awarded Michael ‘Artist of the Millennium’ after his death in 2009.
- Eminem challenged Moby to a fight at the 2002 VMAs after Moby’s remarks that Eminem was homophobic and a misogynist.
- The lip locking sequences at the lesbian themed show put up by Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the 2003 VMAs shocked viewers all over the world.
- The 2004 VMAs did not have a host and was surprisingly quite ‘uneventful’.
- The 2005 VMAs were the first to have performances in Spanish, when Shakira, Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, and Tego Calderon performed. It was the first time that Spanish videos were nominated at the awards.
- Kid Rock, Tommy Lee and Criss Angel are escorted out of the VMA 2007 after Kid Rock reportedly sucker punched Tommy Lee.
- Britney Spears wins 3 awards at the 2008 VAMs. It was the first time she won an award at the VAMs even though she had been previously nominated, a whooping 16 times.
- At the 2009 VMAs Kanye West earns the title ‘Jackass’ for getting drunk, snatching the mike and telling country music star Taylor Swift that Beyonce deserved the award more than her.