AA.VV.
MTV Europe Music Awards 2004

 

This is an appointment I never miss, and there's no way I'm missing it this time... especially this year that it's happening in Italy.
Everyone with a bit of brains knows that most of the awarded don't deserve the success they have, but we're all used to this kind of thing by now, so who the hell cares...
Premise: I didn't see them live, but comfortably from my home sofa.

 

Rome, November 18, 2004 -- For the second time in eleven years, the Mtv Europe Music Awards caravan arrives on our peninsula (the first time was in Milan in 1998) to award the most important artists of the so-called musicbiz in 2004 according to people's votes on the MTV website or via SMS (except for "Best Video"). So it’s natural to say that whoever has more fans crazy enough to spend time voting for them until their fingers are raw and they lose their fingerprints wins, and that's fine too, because if someone has the chance why not seize it just to see their favorite win, even if it’s a damn bouncing MTV award.
Already from the nominations, I didn’t expect much (always the same names, how boring!), however, I was hoping that the category "Best Hard Rock" would reappear, which was there in 2002 (the candidates were KORN, System Of A Down, POD, Puddle Of Mudd... and then who won: Linkin Pork! No!) which then was not presented again, anyway there’s always this category "Best Alternative" and I can say I’m satisfied with that.
Alright, enough chit-chat... let's talk about how this 11th edition of the EMA was: the first thing I noticed was that the stage was almost identical to that of the last edition (which I found quite crappy).

Overall winners this year were Outkast who took home three awards ("Best Group", "Best Video", and "Best Song" with Hey Ya). The best album of the year according to MTV is "Confession" by Usher, and yes, you read that right unfortunately, it’s strange but true (it’s not like there was reason to be happy among the nominees, instead there was reason to literally pull your hair out). And to testify that these awards are just a farce are the other winners, from 5 Maroni to Britney "fakeboobs" Spears. Naturally, in the "Best Rock" category, the winners were Linkin Pork, after all, the purpose of this boy-band is to squeeze money out of the most naive girls and win these damn awards thinking they are the spearheads of nu-metal, which just thinking about these idiots makes me want to puke. To the joy of... hell..., Slim Shady didn’t receive a single nomination, but still managed to win "Best Hip Hop" with the D12, his group. I was very disappointed by "Best Italian Act"; in fact, I was hoping Caparezza or even Linea 77 would win and instead, Tiziano Ferro won, who almost burst into tears live like a child.
"Best Alternative", the category I was most interested in, was won by Muse (the other candidates were Bjork, Franz Ferdinand, Prodigy, and The Hives). Among the live performances, the most anticipated was certainly Eminem and it wasn’t bad, after entering the scene in military dress with a fake tank behind him singing the first verse of his new song "Like Toy Soldier" the party started with "Just Lose It" with the rapper followed by a horde of kids; among the other performances, I didn't mind those of the Beastie and the Hives.

The hosting by rapper Xzibit was good and I liked it, and thanks to these awards, he became famous even in Italy. Finally, we saw the former bullgod Kid Rock again (who presented the live performance of Franz Ferdinand), a bit chubbier right? The best moment in my opinion was when the host shouted in slightly slurred Italian "Bush che stronzo!!".

In conclusion, I liked this edition certainly more than last year's; but the best one remains that of Frankfurt 2001 (and I believe it, the host was Ali G damn!). Surely after writing this review, I'll receive a lot of ridicule and insults, but still, there remains in me the vain hope that this report interests someone, maybe someone who doesn’t like taking themselves too seriously.