The Scoop
MTV Australia
Awards 2008 Wrap-Up
The A-Lister’s came out in
force at this year’s revamped MTV Australia Awards 2008
which for the first time, were held at Australian Technology
Park (Sydney) on April 26th. The star studded affair featured
a whole swag of international celebrities that flew in for the
show such as 50 Cent, Mischa Barton, Juliette & The Licks,
Eve, Kim & Khloe Kardashian, Dizzee Rascal, Leona Lewis, Brian
McFadden, and a toned Wyclef Jean who held the hosting duties
for the night
The local stars also came out in droves with The
Veronicas, The Vines, Kisschasy, The Potbelleez, Scribe, Rogue
Traders, Merrick & Rosso, Mick Fanning, Ian Thorpe, Vanessa
Amorosi, and members of the Underbelly cast all making a showing.
On the awards front, the absent Delta Goodrem beat
out some stiff international competition to take out the night’s
top award, the Video Of The Year, for ‘Believe Again’
while The Veronicas managed to upset Silverchair by taking out
the Australian Artist Music award. In further Veronicas news,
Merrick & Rosso gave us a scoop backstage when they revealed
that Dean Geyer was about to pop the question to his girlfriend,
Lisa Origliasso, giving the now engaged pop starlet another reason
to celebrate. Scribe was also in a jovial mood after picking up
the New Zealand Artist Award while P!nk took out the MTV Live
Performer Award.
One of the more interesting awards on the night
was the Bad Karma Award. Former immigration minister Kevin Andrews
was guaranteed to pick that one up seeing as he received all of
the nominations. His decision to ban Snoop Dogg from entering
the country last year was not popular with fans…and therefore,
a popular winner of this non-prestigious award. Earth Hour, which
engaged Australia and the world to act against climate change,
picked up the Good Karma gong.
Unlike previous years where the internationals flown
in were almost certainties to pick up awards, most in fact walked
away empty handed at this year’s event. They did however
manage to put in some of the night’s most memorable performances.
Juliette & The Licks put on a blistering performance that
even frontwoman Juliette Lewis was proud of. The actress said,
“You know you’ve done a good job when you’re
sopping wet from sweat. We tried to give a little flavour of our
hour-and-a-half show in four minutes. We did a little bit of a
mash-up of a couple of songs of ours and it was fun.”
Dizzee Rascal also put on a spectacular show and
wasn’t shy about proclaiming his performance as the highlight
of the night. Host Wyclef Jean however played down his opening
act. He said, “The intro was shocking but I don’t
take myself seriously. You know, the world is at such a stage
where you got a food crisis; you got war all over the world. I
think tonight was great comedy relief and I think we all need
a piece of that in the world right now.”
The highlight of the night for this scribe however
was partying into the wee hours with none other than actress/singer
Juliette Lewis at the Hilton after-party. The energetic frontwoman
for Juliette & The Licks danced so hard at the Hilton’s
Marble Bar that even the party’s MC Wyclef Jean declared
his love for her over the mic. Former local girl and now New York
based MTV host Lyndsey Rodrigues also agreed when she said, “If
(Lewis) was any cooler, she would have to live in an igloo.”
It was a fun-filled ending to another awards ceremony. Congratulations
to all of the winners on the night, which were:
RECOGNITION AWARD
RECIPIENTS
SPORTS AWARD: Mick Fanning
MOVIE STAR: Matt Damon
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Timbaland
VIEWER VOTED CATEGORIES:
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR: Delta Goodrem - Believe Again.
AUSTRALIAN ARTIST MUSIC AWARD: The Veronicas
NEW ZEALAND ARTIST AWARD: Scribe
MTV LIVE PERFORMER AWARD: P!nk - I’m Not Dead Tour.
TELEVISION MOMENT AWARD: Chaser’s War on Everything - APEC
2007 Stunt.
MTV GOOD KARMA AWARD: Earth Hour - Engaging Australia and the
world to act against climate change.
BAD KARMA AWARD: Kevin Andrews - All nominations
REMAKE AWARD: William Weatheritt (QLD) - Ja'mie's End-Of-Term
Shopping Spree
Fans interested in catching
the action from the night can log onto www.mtv.com.au/awards
to see the entire show and red carpet as well as other tidbits
such as The Diary Of Dizzee Rascal and the popular Fan vs Band
section.
BACKSTAGE QUOTES
“That’s why we did it. This will win
us an MTV Award.” (The Chaser’s explanation on why
they carried out their APEC stunt)
“I look at the script but I just go with the
flow. Like when they put two blonde girls there. Remember them?
And they just put them there. I really wanted to ask them, ‘What’s
1+1?’” (Wyclef Jean speaking of his temptation to
change the show’s script)
“It’s going really well. I actually
have a lot more fun here. I actually kind of prefer Australia.
I mean I know that everyone is like, ‘Oh wow, in New York
you get to interview celebrities.’ But here I get to hang
out with my friends and family.” (Lyndsey Rodrigues talking
about her experience hosting MTV in New York)
“We’re gonna play live as we’ve
got an album coming out on July 12th.” (Craig Nicholls discussing
The Vines’ 2008 plans)
“I just feel the Aussie audience is very…my
kind of people. We’re like related!” (Juliette Lewis
– loving Australian audiences)
“The people – they generally gave a s***. They cared.
It weren’t plastic.” (Dizzee Rascal - also loving
our audiences)
Danny Canak
