Here we have the MTV Europe Music Awards edition from 2014 as you can also see from the title and this one went for 95 minutes without commercials, so maybe two hours with commercial breaks. The names of director Russell Thomas and writer Dan Swimer are probably unknown to 99% of people, but that is alright. Their effort here does not indicate in any way that they should be famous. I found especially shocking how weak this one turned out given the fact that both of them were already pretty prolific back then and have contributed to many similar events. Anyway, now what do I mean with the title of my review? Let me explain. The first and most general take is that the title is a lie because there is viirtually nothing awards-worthy in here from beginning to end and this includes winners, nominees and performances. With the mention of "performances", I can instantly elaborate on my second point: This show has the same definition problem like many many other awards shows, also the Grammys for example. And whatg I am talking about here is that it much more of a concert than an actual awards show. "Thema verfehlt" is what we say at school here in Germany. Admittedly, in the second half there are more awards handed out, but still. As long as individual awards are completely omitted from the broadcast, it is not acceptable. Or Katy Perry got one award and she is simply announced as the winner and we see a brief video message and we do not even find out who the other nominees were. Or maybe the most embarrassing aspect of the night: Justin Bieber won "Best Male". Okay that is pretty embarrassing too, but not what I mean. Unless I fell asleep because it wwas all so bland, they did not show the award at all, probably because the Bieber was not there? Imagine the Oscars simply say: "Yeah we have a winner for Best Actor, but tonight we are not gonna show who won it. No acceptance speech either. You can check out after the show who won." This is what they did basically. And honestly, this is such a no-go that no matter how good the rest of the show could have been, I'd never give this more than two stars. And I am saying this as somebody who does not see any talent in Bieber really, just as a neutral observer. I cannot imagine how disappointed I'd have been as a fan. Oh yeah, they also did not include all the European winners, but nobody should be surprised by that really. It's still a bad decision because (and with this I am coming to my third point) here we have the EUROPEAN Music Awards. There is almost nothing European about this show, not even the host and barely none of the nominees. And those few who are European are basically British. There were no inclusions from Scandinavia, nothing from Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, France etc. People should sue them for this title. Well, there actually are winners from these countries, but like I said they were never gonna be a part of the show and also it does not have a lot to do with a united Europe if every country gets one winner.
A more fitting title would be "Nicki Minaj Awards 2014". She was the host, she gave a long performance and she also did not go home empty-handed. Actually, I was surprised that she did not win the big prize for Best Female. That one went to Ariana Grande. I'm fine with that. I kinda like her. I like the tone of her voice and she has solid recognition value and she is not as weak as most of the others, even if the song she sang at the very beginning of the show was not exactly particularly good either. Or both songs I should say. But it wasn't as bad as what Minaj had to offer afterwards. It is frequently the case with these awards shows that the host is not too much in it, but this is the opposite. Minaj got a great amount of screen time and I find her even more annyoing now than before watching this and I did not even think this could be possible. But as long as people buy stuff like her Anaconda song, then you cannot really blame the "artist". They take the cash, but dumb people deserve to be punished I guess. Okay can I say anything positive here? Jena Malone is more attractive than I remember, especially ith that hair color. Ed Sheeran was better than I expected, don't like him either, but I guess it is pretty telling if a genuinely mediocre artist like him is one of the highlights of the show. Hey, at least he is British. But what was up with the old black-and-white clip announcing him to appear after the commercial break. I have seen better high school videos honestly and with that I don't even mean film students. By the ay, this announcemenet is symbolic for all that ent wrong that night. They should have announced the next big awards category, but instead they kept announcing performances and nothing else. The final Ozzy tribute was embarrassing, but hey if he even decides to get up and applaud, then he deserves no better. At least he did not eat a bat in front of the camera. Oh yeah, back to Minaj, she was part of one of several Scotland-themed moments of the show because this was held in Glasgow. But I shall not say anything about the golf moment. Not funny, just stupid. Admittedly, as we find out, the host from 2013 was not any better as his briief inclusion was also as embarrassing as it gets. More Scotland-themed inclusion included more failure from Minaj when she managed to turn a prtety great Proclaimers song into utter garbage. And David Hasselhoff is not 1% of Mel Gibson, even in heavy Braveheart makeup. Admittedly later on he was not as bad as the brat who announced she is John Cena's girlfriend. And what was Alicia Keys doing there, another overrated artist who has zero connection with Europe. Okay I guess you get the message. It would have been better if this had never taken place at all. And unless they drastically change the core approach (and please at least get a semi-decent host), the best would be if they completely cancel this event for years to come. Massive thumbs-down. An abomination.
A more fitting title would be "Nicki Minaj Awards 2014". She was the host, she gave a long performance and she also did not go home empty-handed. Actually, I was surprised that she did not win the big prize for Best Female. That one went to Ariana Grande. I'm fine with that. I kinda like her. I like the tone of her voice and she has solid recognition value and she is not as weak as most of the others, even if the song she sang at the very beginning of the show was not exactly particularly good either. Or both songs I should say. But it wasn't as bad as what Minaj had to offer afterwards. It is frequently the case with these awards shows that the host is not too much in it, but this is the opposite. Minaj got a great amount of screen time and I find her even more annyoing now than before watching this and I did not even think this could be possible. But as long as people buy stuff like her Anaconda song, then you cannot really blame the "artist". They take the cash, but dumb people deserve to be punished I guess. Okay can I say anything positive here? Jena Malone is more attractive than I remember, especially ith that hair color. Ed Sheeran was better than I expected, don't like him either, but I guess it is pretty telling if a genuinely mediocre artist like him is one of the highlights of the show. Hey, at least he is British. But what was up with the old black-and-white clip announcing him to appear after the commercial break. I have seen better high school videos honestly and with that I don't even mean film students. By the ay, this announcemenet is symbolic for all that ent wrong that night. They should have announced the next big awards category, but instead they kept announcing performances and nothing else. The final Ozzy tribute was embarrassing, but hey if he even decides to get up and applaud, then he deserves no better. At least he did not eat a bat in front of the camera. Oh yeah, back to Minaj, she was part of one of several Scotland-themed moments of the show because this was held in Glasgow. But I shall not say anything about the golf moment. Not funny, just stupid. Admittedly, as we find out, the host from 2013 was not any better as his briief inclusion was also as embarrassing as it gets. More Scotland-themed inclusion included more failure from Minaj when she managed to turn a prtety great Proclaimers song into utter garbage. And David Hasselhoff is not 1% of Mel Gibson, even in heavy Braveheart makeup. Admittedly later on he was not as bad as the brat who announced she is John Cena's girlfriend. And what was Alicia Keys doing there, another overrated artist who has zero connection with Europe. Okay I guess you get the message. It would have been better if this had never taken place at all. And unless they drastically change the core approach (and please at least get a semi-decent host), the best would be if they completely cancel this event for years to come. Massive thumbs-down. An abomination.