Review: MTV VMAs 2001 (MTV Video Music Awards)

Member Name: TM2001

Product:	MTV Video Music Awards
Date:	07/09/01 (864 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good performances, Good presenter, Not bad music

Disadvantages: Too many ADS!!!

So, the MTV Video Music Awards 2001 were announced in New York last night, and as always MTV's presenters were there to host it and give you all the gossip and show all the stars arriving. I watched the ceremony on MTV:UK and Ireland, but we basically got the same as our US counterparts. The show started off with the "Opening Act", that is like at the Oscars when you see all the big stars arriving, and this wasnt any different. They did get a few bands to play, and one of my favourites, Alien Ant Farm did a superb playing of their song "Smooth Criminal".

After the MTV presenters warbling on for ages with "all the big stars", the show finally began at 1am *enter different time to compensate your time zone*. It was hosted by US comedian Jamie Foxx and with the terrible show done by the Waylon brothers last year, where it looked like they had only rehearsed for a couple of days, Foxx was on great form, getting the audience on his side from the very start with a routine that made use of every band playing or giving an award on the night. I cant remember much of it, but it was very funny the way he puned all their names together!

The show then consisted of some very good live performances and the obvious giving out of awards, with the "cheesy" thanking god routine used by most of the bands who won. The live performers were (I wont get all here I think): Staind with another song off their album, and not "Its Been A While" or "Outside", Linkin Park rocked with "One Step Closer", 14 year old Alicia Keys played "Fallin'" on her piano, very good for a 14 year old IMO. U2 performed Elevation from the Tomb Raider movie towards the end of the show..however the 2 biggest performers were N'Sync and Britney Spears.

N'Sync did a pretty over the top rendition of their hit "Pop". They were singing live (like most on the night) and they were doi
ng some good dancing, however the biggest shock of the night came when their song went to its conclusion, then something that looked like a Etch-A-Sketch board changed from "Kings Of Pop" (supposingly N'Sync meant to be I think), to "King of Pop", then it sketched out Michael Jackson's silouette with "Scream" playing in the background..surely not, it couldnt be him, could it? Well, who turned up to dance about with N'Sync? It was Michael Jackson himself, still a superb dancer, but looking just a little frail for my liking. He got a standing ovation from the audience for what felt like 10 minutes, but I suppose he deserved a good clap.

Britney Spears was the one performer everyone was looking forward to seeing, promised a storming show, with Britney "faking an orgasm on stage" - unmissable? Well, she came out in a jungle sort of outfit and she looked stunning as always, however I would not say this performance topped the 2000 VMA awards when she striped, and gave one of the Waylon brothers their best line of the night when they said "She's gone from the Mickey Mouse club to the strip club". She sung "I'm A Slave 4 U" from her new forthcoming album, but as a guy I wasnt really interested in how the song sounded, I wanted to see what she was wearing (sorry for that male chauvanism there!). For people who were interested, the song wasnt very good actually, the dance routine was pretty good, but there was no fake orgasm (boooo)!

One thing that bugs me about award ceremonies on MTV is the amount of advertisements you have to suffer, If anyone has seen "The Premiership" on ITV, I can safely say that last nights show made a monkey out of the amount of ads in the football show. I wasnt counting, but at one time we had 5 ad breaks in less than 25 minutes, and what made it worse for MTV:UK viewers was the title sequence on the programme was a bloody pain, and if the
UK were back quicker than the MTV US, we had to endure this bass driven title sequence with flashing lights for over 2 minutes on at least 3 separate occasions, simply cause the US side wasnt ready to start up the party again. Also, I think the forthcoming movie The Fast And The Furious must be a MTV movie, because it had over 10-12 ads for it during the whole 3 hour show! I want to see the film, but I expect I have probably seen half of the content with the amount of ads for it!

Anyway, on to the main part of any awards ceremony, the main winners:
The UK's Fatboy Slim was a big winner,
grabbing 6 awards for the video "Weapon Of choice". US popstars N'Sync were the 2nd biggest winners, getting 4 awards, including the sought after "Viewers Choice award" The girls from the Moulin Rouge, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Mya and Lil' Kim got 2 awards for their Lady Marmalade video.
Other winners were: Outkast (Best Hip Hop Video), Moby feat Gwen Stefani (Best Male Video), Eve feat Gwen Stefani again (Best Female Video) Best New Artist Video went to Alicia Keys for Fallin', Best MTV2 video went to Mudvayne with "Dig" (weird looking set of guys they were) Best Rap Video went to Nelly, Best Rock Video went to Limp Bizkit, Destiny's Child got the Best R n B Video and Robbie Williams got Best Effects In A Video for Rock DJ.

So, my opinion over the whole night: It was a good awards ceremony, with most of the artists live performances being that, with singing live. Most of them were very good with Staind and Linkin Park my favourites. I guessed a few of the awards before they were handed out, and I suppose a few would have guessed N'Sync would grab most of the awards, especially as they were up for 6. Fatboy Slim got 6 out of 9 awards that he was up for though, very good and shows UK music is still alive and kicking in the US. I will probably watch the 2002 show next year, cause it certainly wa
s a good well made show.

Summary: