Idolator: Awards

The BET Awards Promise Big Stars, Big Hits And The Word "Feat."

Anthony Miccio — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:00:00 EDT

As the MTV Music Awards become clumsier with every passing year in a less-than-subtle expression of how much acknowledging musical accomplishments has become an annoyance for a network that would much rather chase teenagers around with cameras, the BET Awards stand as the only place where you'll see the biggest acts in pop music (Lil' Wayne, Usher, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey and Nelly are already scheduled to perform) presented with production value and professional competence, acknowledging elders (Al Green and Quincy Jones will respectively receive lifetime achievement and humanitarian awards) without turning into a hoary grandpa fest. "Best Group" seems a little duo heavy, and it's funny to see T-Pain lead the nominations solely on guest spots, but it's refreshing to see a "Best Female Hip-Hop Artist" category. A list of the awards and nominees below.

Video of the Year
Ashanti "The Way That I Love You"
Alicia Keys "Like You'll Never See Me Again"
Mary J. Blige "Just Fine"
UGK feat. OutKast "Int'l Player's Anthem (I Choose You)"
Kanye West feat. T-Pain "Good Life"
Erykah Badu "Honey"

Best Female R&B Artist
Alicia Keys
Mary J. Blige
Keyshia Cole
Rihanna
Mariah Carey

Best Male R&B Artist
Raheem DeVaughn
Trey Songz
Ne-Yo
Chris Brown
J. Holiday

Best Group
Danity Kane
UGK
Day 26
Playaz Circle
Gnarls Barkley

Best New Artist
Flo Rida
Estelle
Chrisette Michele
Soulja Boy
The-Dream

Best Female Hip-Hop Artist
Kid Sister
Trina
Lil' Mama
Missy Elliott
Eve

Best Male Hip-Hop Artist
Snoop Dogg
Jay-Z
Lil' Wayne
Common
Kanye West

Best Collaboration
DJ Khaled feat. Lil' Wayne, Big Boi, Ludacris, Fat Joe & Young Jeezy-"I'm So Hood (remix)"
Keyshia Cole feat. Lil' Kim & Missy Elliott-"Let It Go"
Kanye West feat. T-Pain-"Good Life"
Flo Rida feat. T-Pain-"Low"
Chris Brown feat. T-Pain-"Kiss Kiss"

Viewer's Choice
Chris Brown feat. T-Pain-"Kiss Kiss"
Lil' Wayne feat. Static Major-"Lollipop"
Keyshia Cole feat. Missy Elliott & Lil' Kim-"Let It Go"
Alicia Keys-"No One"
Soulja Boy-"Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)"
Jordin Sparks feat. Chris Brown-"No Air"

Lifetime Achievement
Al Green

Who Cares About Talent? [Bossip]

Australian MTV Awards Make Me Feel Better About America

Dan Gibson — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:30:00 EDT

On the days when I'm trying to entertain you people with the blogging, I get a little depressed sometimes about American music. Spend any amount of time looking through music coverage in daily or weekly newspapers or trade magazines, and it's hard to see a bright side as miserable acts fly up the charts. On the other hand, Australia's MTV Awards were this weekend, and their popular music seems to suck more than ours, so chin up, buddy!

Meet Delta Goodrem (whose name unfortunately sounds like a Scientology term), a 23 year old former soap star who dominates the Australian charts and who won the Video of the Year award for "Believe Again". The track was apparently inspired by classical music and modern adult contemporary music, and the video was the most expensive in Australian music history. Goodrem is engaged to a former member of banal British boy band Westlife, which seems just about right. Apparently, she's looking to make a break into the American market, and with that horrible Leona Lewis song everywhere, her success seems more plausible everyday, so be forewarned.

I should have made a spoiler alert earlier for anyone planning to catch tonight's broadcast featuring stars such as Mischa Barton on the satellite, but the Australian artist award went to the Veronicas, an duo made up of identical twins who are sort of a less interesting version of t.A.T.u.

Is there a country left with a musical output I can look to wistfully as being so much better than America's? France? The Philippines? Togo? Anywhere?

Stars turn out as Pop reigns at the MTV Australia Awards [New Zealand Herald]

Amy Winehouse Scores Another Victory for Drag Queens Everywhere

jharv — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:40:10 EDT

Surely it's no coincidence that in the same week that the remake of Hairspray hits theaters, Amy Winehouse, Divine's spiritual heir^*, has made the Mercury Prize shortlist for her ~~debut~~ album, Back to Black. (Listen closely, and somewhere you can hear poor, snubbed-in-'06 Lily Allen grinding her teeth to nubs.) She's up against the Arctic Monkeys (Fall Out Boy for people who prefer track jackets to eyeliner) and Dizzee Rascal (still pluggin' away, god bless him). Still, I'm pulling for Winehouse. Not because I have any particular love for her album, but because the Arctics and Dizzee both already have a Mercury Prize to prop open the screen door on hot days. (The rest of this year's lucky nominees are after the jump.)

While the Mercury Prize seems to be taken as seriously by its countrymen as a royalist monarchy or Rowan Atkinson, this collection of mostly wack-ass NME-rock still seems like a pretty piss-poor collection of musicians to hold up as representing the best the nation has to offer. Being American, and therefore living in a country responsible for things like this, I can't really talk that much shit, but any Brits (or uppity Anglophiles) reading this are more than welcome to talk as much shit as they like in the comments box. At least there are no Antony-style "Well, he was born here" boners on this year's list. I'm Irish and French, making it my genetic destiny to despise the English, and even I got pissed off about that one.

Bat for Lashes Fur and Gold (Echo)
Fionn Regan The End of History (Lost Highway)
New Young Pony Club Fantastic Playroom (Modular)
Klaxons Myths of the Near Future (Rinse/Polydor)
The Young Knives Voices of Animals and Men (Transgressive)
Maps We Can Create (Mute)
The Views Hats Off to the Buskers (1965)
Jamie T Panic Prevention" (Virgin)
Basquiat Strings Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford (F-Ire)

^* Minus the shit-eating, at least as far as we know.

Arctics, Winehouse Make Mercury Prize Shortlist [Billboard]

The Grammy Awards: The Semi-Excitement Begins!

Brian Raftery — Wed, 09 May 2007 11:35:05 EDT

As you may have heard, February 10th, 2008, is going to be the biggest day of next year: Not only will the world community mark the 8th anniversary of Jim Varney's death, but the Recording Academy will hold the 50th annual Grammy Awards ceremony. Are you ready for lots of montages in which Aretha sings "Respect" and Mick grimacingly changes the lyrics to "Let's Spend The Night Together"? Well, you should be! No, really, you should be—you need at least seven or eight months to prep for this kind of thing.

Anyway, in celebration of this milestone, the Grammys will be launching all kinds of tie-in promotions, including a new "high-end" fashion line that will feature everything "from leather jackets and high-end tees to beaded handbags, jewelry and accessories." We expect the line to be a big hit—young kids love nothing more than showing their allegiance to organizations with histories of ill-informed choices and intra-staff sexual-harassment claims—and we're happy to help with the design process.

50th Annual Grammy Awards Celebration Plans [Jazz News]