The morning of June 21st was an early one for many. Beginning at 6 a.m., an early wake up for any teenager, fans began lining up on the corner of Queen and John Streets to wait 11 hours in the boiling sun to see some of their favourite artists. The Much Music Video Awards would be held that night, the red carpet show beginning live at 8 p.m.
I won’t bore with the roster of celebrities that attended; we all know the Jonas Brothers hosted and Lady Gaga blew her tits up. So read on for the details you probably haven’t heard.
The beginning of the show was not in fact live, as the red carpet takes over an hour to actually get through. Filming began at approximately 7:20 and wrapped at 8:40, giving editors just enough time to loop everything onto the airwaves with a delay of about twenty minutes. The show began exactly on time with one of the biggest paradoxes I have ever seen in the music industry: the Jonas Brothers took centre stage to perform for some tween queens while the John Street stage played host to Alexisonfire just moments later.
A fantastic scene was the Billy Talent performance which could be seen from anywhere in the crowd, with the exception of the corner of the John Street stage that wrapped around the Much building. The rockers performed their single Rusted from the Rain atop a makeshift rooftop. A little known fact of this? The boys were told not to jump or move around too much. “It’s safe, just don’t jump; but it’s safe” one crew member said. The “rooftop” stage was actually a series of construction girders and the floor was wire mesh that Billy Talent lead Ben spit through (although it was suggested he also whip it out and relieve himself).
The now infamous Lady Gaga performance almost didn’t happen due to technical difficulties. When arranging her subway car stage entrance, Much Music crew was having a difficult time with the logistics of getting it on and off stage quickly enough. “So I said if the train didn’t work, I wanna blow up my tits.” In the end, they used both events, and everything went off without a hitch.
I wasn’t impressed by the Black Eyed Peas’ performance; it was a virtual verbatim of their album version and music video, albeit with more jailstripe dancers (if you can call them that). There was nothing visually impressive or anything over the top about the performance.
One thing that fans did not see was the backstage areas allotted to press and guests. The main press area had servers with about twelve different gourmet dishes floating around (think truffled Mac and Cheese and Herb-crusted beef skewers), while the back press filing area had constant refreshments and a bar to keep people satiated. The celebrity gift lounge was plush-carpeted and offered guests anything from Bench outerwear to Moroccan Oils to Kuerig Coffee. Okay, I hadn’t heard of the last two brands either, but they sound fancy, so they must be classy and overly-expensive, right?
Overall, the night was a massive success, and everyone, whether celebrity or not, was treated as such. The atmosphere was hectic but warm, and the aura of the night was spastic yet relaxed. It will be a difficult event to top, but if anyone can do it, Much Music can. Here’s to 2010.