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Not as awful as today's editions, but overall not particularly memorable either

Okay here we got the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, so this awards show for mostly younger audiences that was held in autumn back then is almost 15 years old now and one of the two writers here was Hamish Hamilton who is still waiting for his first Emmy win in 2023 and is really the epitome of the most prolific person with being in charge of these awards shows and the second writer is Dave Diomedi, who may not be as prolific as Hamilton, but still very prolific and was also nominated for three Emmys already compared to Hamilton&#39;s nine nominations. This event here ran for 110 minutes approximately if we do not count commercials breaks, but if we do then it went on for easily over two hours. This was supposed to be the big tribute show for the then recently-deceased Michael Jackson. Several relatives were there and there was a tribute by Madonna at the end and we also got to see a trailer or some scenes from the self-proclaimed defining Michael Jackson documentary at the very end, but still nobody really talked about Jackson too much anymore, but everybody talked about Kanye West and what he did during Taylor Swift&#39;s early trophy acceptance speech. I will not give you the details. I am sure you know what happened anyway or, if not, then you will see it when watching this show. It is just as famous as the moment when Will Smith punched Chris Rock you can say. Maybe even more famous. Everybody remembers Kanye&#39;s interference from back then even nowadays and he is considered crazy by many now anyway. Not saying that he is. Beyoncé&#39;s decision to give the stage to Swift during her win towards the end then was a nice act of kindness though. Maybe the best moment of the night. I was still a bit confused too what extent this was all planned and written with how Swift was not in the audience there, but entered from behind as if she was ready for all this. We will never know. I hope it was not all fake. One thing that was definitely not particularly authentic was Russell Brand&#39;s hosting. At that point he was still Katy Perry&#39;s significant other, but oh well he has nothing of her talent. I only find him loud and obnoxious and unfunny. Generally, I like it when people are not scared of making politically incorrect jokes and you can surely say that about Brand here and with some of his lines he never would have gotten away from the sexism perspective and his career probably would have been over if he had made those in the 2020s, but yeah people were no so easily-offended back then, but his career is somewhat over now anyway, isn&#39;t it? I also think he said something like how this was not the first time he hosted. No clue why they would bring him back. He was just not good. Good news is the longer the show went, the less he was seen on the screen. As for the rest, there was a solid amount of win-splitting this time. I already mentioned Swift and Beyoncé winning an award. Others went to Green Day, Eminem, Lady Gaga etc. Lady Gaga was a new artist at that point. How time flies. Marc Anthony was still together with Jennifer Lopez. Serena Williams was still winning Grand Slams or wait, she actually just lost at a GS right before this show, I think. Surprised she was on location nonetheless. An actual highlight of the show was Taylor Swift&#39;s subway performance and how she was returning to the arena afterwards. Pretty cool and close to the fans. I also kinda like her early music. I have been harsh on her when it comes to her stepping away from country and all the absolutely forgettable pop music she has come up with in the last ten years, but here you have to give her some credit. An aspect of the show where I cannot give credit were these intermissions with Eminem and Tracy Morgan. Terribly unfunny and when they entered the stage later on, it didn&#39;t get any better. Eminem is really one unlikable mainstream media phenomenon. Puppet even. Can&#39;t believe people still see him as a rebel or something like that. He is as adjusted as it gets. Not badass at all. This show also had a bit of the same problem that many music awards shows have had for a long time, namely that there is too much music and not enough handing-out the awards. Oh yeah, Britney Spears was also still relevant back then and took home an award. She was touring, so she accepted it in a little video. Another winner was T. I. I don&#39;t wanna mention all the winners now as you can check out the list for that. Pink or &quot;P!nk&quot; (how she embarrassingly calls herself sometimes) was performing in some kind of acrobatics stage show as she sometimes does, but that does not make her music any better either. The very worst moment of it all, however, was probably when Brand called Jimmy Fallon the David Letterman of our generation. This is so wrong for all kinds of reasons. Total embarrassment and absolutely lacking respect for Letterman to compare him to somebody as free of talent as Fallon. The latter showed that as well later on with his embarrassing Samberg skit. But that one is not exactly talented either. Just like Megan Fox is not the most beautiful (single) woman on the planet. Please. Or was it Beyoncé if we cut the singe? Brand could not really make up his mind either I suppose, but it was embarrassing how he sucked up there. Of course, he is also a full-on liberal as we found out fast enough. Little bit of politics was included too. Obama was mentioned and Brand compared the American health care system with the British health care system in one of his not entirely bad moments. Those were rare though. Lady Gaga in the meantime was busy with outfits that covered her face until it got too much for her herself and she just removed it in her acceptance speech. There it was just the usual rambling too, like how her fans are the very best of them all and so on. As we know from Gaga, she is also always the one who tries so hard to be as edgy and polarizing to stay memorable and here she gave it her best shot with some fake blood or red color or whatever during one of the songs she performed, but it was all just try-hard and did not feel 10% as effective as Kanye having his moment early on. I am sure he did not care one bit about the boos he harvested for that for the rest of the night. What else is there to say? I think this was pretty much it. Oh yeah, the Twilight kids were around as well. Gee they were so young back then. They were presenting the newest installment to the franchise. No clue why though as this was a music awards ceremony. But it shows how big they were at that point. Other than that, I don&#39;t really like Green Day too much, but I agree that MTV needs to show more music videos. Oh yeah, another thing Brand got hopefully wrong was when he called Jack Black something along the lines of the greatest comedy actor. Can only shake my head at that too to be honest. Black is not as bad as Brand admittedly, but his little skit was quite embarrassing too there with the muscle suit or whatever it was. Most stunning inclusion of the night was maybe Leighton Meester who had never looked better or maybe also Shakira wo is always a winner and the song she had out back then had a connection with Lautner&#39;s character on Twilight, so they got to present a category together. Actually, I think it was the character that resulted in the Swift/West mayhem. Some say he made her that night. Well, she is still around in 2023 and breaking records. Not sure how much of a role West played there or maybe if it was all really staged. As I said earlier, we will never know. This is really it then know. Overall, I think the music was better back then compared to what it is today at these shows, but it wasn&#39;t super great either. Catchy some of the songs were, but no major artistic achievements. You find those on other occasions that the MTV Music Awards. Especially nowadays. The 2009 edition gets a thumbs-down from me, but it was not a total failure. The biggest loser that night was maybe Jackson or his family because he/they lost his/their center status of the event already before the first quarter of an hour was over. All about Kanye there, even if the Jackson&#39;s weren&#39;t bad at all. Janet gave it his all with her dancing and she resembled Michael so much. I am still baffled. And I did not know Madonna had so much in common with MJ. I still wonder if the meeting between the two really happened the way she described it. Oh yeah, another tribute went to Adam Goldstein. Much shorter one though. Very tragic. The show then pretty much ended then with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys playing the New York anthem, fittingly because this was where the event took place, but yeah, I find it one of the most overrated songs ever. Judging from the show&#39;s imdb rating, the entire thing here was maybe not as overrated, but definitely on the overrated side. My suggestion is that you skip the watch and maybe just go to Youtube and check out the Kanye moment and how Beyoncé allowed Swift to return to the stage later on. Then you have seen more than enough really.

User reviews

2009 MTV Video Music Awards

Not as awful as today's editions, but overall not particularly memorable either

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