Idolator

The Monaco-based racket of nebulous music honors known as the World Music Awards gave out its 2008 slate of prizes over the weekend. I thought that actually seeing the list of winners would make me a bit clearer on the purpose of the show, but I was gravely mistaken. What can you say about a ceremony that's marked by the following oddities: Norway getting its own award in its honor, while Sweden is ignored; the R & B category is split into "Best R & B Act" and "Best R & B Male"; and Kid Rock apparently is such a crossover smash, he's able to nab the "Best Pop Male" and "Best Pop/Rock Male" awards. And that doesn't even get into the World Music Awards-certified notion that Akon is the Internet's biggest musician. God help us all, right? Full list of winners after the jump, in case you want to try and make sense of things. More »

The World Music Awards, the annual celebration of people who buy records to which none of those people are invited unless they pony up $22k on top of what they've already spent on albums, has given original host Lindsay Lohan the boot, presumably because she wasn't dignified enough to host a semi-useless awards show that airs on myNetworkTV weeks after it actually happens. Lohan's replacement: E! reality-TV star and former Wild Thing Denise Richards. (Who, it should be noted, has never put out a record. Burn!) I personally would have checked to see if the Shyguy who performed with Akon at last year's ceremony was available, but I guess the WMA organizers didn't want to get too classy in honor of its 20th anniversary. More »

Last night, a few dozen UHF viewers got a little taste of international glamour at the World Music Awards, where America's pop elite and a bunch of foreigners were airlifted to Monte-Carlo to prove that middle-aged white people awkwardly bumping asses to "Ayo Technology" transcends borders. Or something. The WMAs' Model U.N. included winners Rihanna, DJ David Guetta, 50 Cent, Mika, and basically whoever else had bothered to turn up, but it turned out we were the real winners, because the show was really celebrating us for "buying albums and legally downloading." (RIAA propaganda is apparently also universal.) See, we thought the real winners were lovers of exaggerated comedy accents; if you were a fan of frighteningly stern supermodels who sound like they're hunting moose and squirrel or beefy rugby players who sound like Charo, this was the awards show for you.