![]() The main categories (Best Song, Male/Female, Live and Video) are dominated by international talent, which here means “not European”. ![]() This brings us back around to the 2014 nominations. Redfoo – the older guy from strange Uncle/Nephew fratband LMFAO – hosted in 2013, and featured appearances including a faceless “star” from an MTV teen drama and Bridgit Mendler, the not quite Carly Rae Jepsen of 2013. ![]() P Diddy hosted the awards in 2002 and Kylie Minogue, Marilyn Manson, Pamela Anderson and Pierce Brosnan presented awards. It could be said that the viewing figures for the EMAs continue to rise in tandem with the huge mainstream performers – but that still doesn’t explain why the awards and the presenters are less and less likely to be from European countries, and even less likely to be A-list megastars. The 2013 ceremony reached a new peak of 55 million worldwide viewers (11.5 million in the US), an impressive number compared to the 8.5 million US viewers who tuned in to the more explicitly US-centric MTV VMAs this year. The audience figures for the EMA’s are huge – and it’s particularly galling when you realize what a missed promotional opportunity they are for so many European acts. What’s the point in holding the MTV VMAs twice? Just so we can see Taylor Swift awkwardly moving her body off beat in the front row again, but this time in Frankfurt? If you’ve ploughed through that potted history, you’re probably wondering, like I am, what the fuck are MTV playing at? What should be, and perhaps did begin as a celebration of European music, and an opportunity to showcase European talent to a much wider, global audience, is now merely another promotional vehicle for the already ubiquitous American artists you can see on mainstream charts the world over. Last year the only European act to perform alongside a line up of 10 American artists were the Swedish duo Icona Pop. That number has slowly depleted to make way for more and more huge name US artists. Until 2003/2004, at least half, and sometimes up to three quarters of the performers could be relied upon to fly European (mostly British) flags. (Pub quiz trivia: the only other person to host the EMAs twice is Irish charisma void Ronan Keating.) In the 13 years since, Sacha Baron Cohen made a return as Borat and Heidi Klum hosted the 2012 ceremony, but every single one of the 11 other hosts have been American, including Katy Perry. Between the first EMAs in 1994 and the 2001 ceremony hosted by Sacha Baron Cohen in character as Ali G, six European artists took on the role of MC, interspersed with Jenny McCarthy in 1998 and Wyclef Jean in 2000. While the televised coverage of the EMAs hasn’t exactly been a real platform for showcasing European artists to a massive audience, at least we were allowed to host it. Imagine the frustration of the political Eurovision alliances on a vast scale there’s just no stopping the East Asia voting blocs. ![]() In the three years since ‘Best Worldwide Act’ was introduced, it has been won by China twice (Han Geng, 2012 and Chris Lee, 2013) and Korea once (Big Bang, 2011). This was replaced with ‘Best European Act’ in 2009 before doing away with it entirely in 2011 to usher in the ‘Best Worldwide Act’ category and completely eradicate any sense of European dominance at… the Europe Music Awards. In 1998, concerted efforts were made to award more European talent, when categories were added to represent more European acts, expanding the number of included territories year on year, and introducing the ‘Europe’s Favourite Act’ award in 2008 (televised, and won by Emre Aydin, Turkey). ![]()
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