Video Music Awards forgets music

By Nora Bowler

From the Golden Globes to the Emmys, it’s always nice to see a favorite piece of media from an award ceremony win. For this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, this aspect of the show was far from enjoyable.

The winners of the MTV VMAs are decided by fan votes. Besides technical awards, which are decided by a panel of judges. 

This aspect of the show ensures there won’t be any major upsets, and fans can show their love to their favorite musical artists. In recent years, the VMAs have become more about performances than the actual awards that are being given out. 

Despite more than 20 awards being given out last Sunday, only seven were announced live. For an awards show with a three-hour run time, most would think they’d make time for the actual awards. Instead, there were sixteen performances. 

Winner of This year’s best new artist, Alex Warren, found out he won while on the red carpet. Past winners of this monumental award include Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, and Doja Cat, all of whom are now household names and have made huge impressions on the music industry. 

Wouldn’t you think that such an important award would be given some spotlight instead of being announced while the winner is still on the red carpet? Who decides which awards get to be announced live? And why did only seven awards make the cut? Video of the Year, Best Pop Video, Album of the Year, Best Pop Artist, Song of the Year, Best New Artist and Best Collaboration were announced live on air. All other genres and technical awards were announced online instead of at the event. Why are these awards not celebrated in the same capacity? Did creatives not work as hard as those who won the seven awards that were announced live? Don’t you think some of those winners would’ve liked to make a speech? Publicly thank all those who helped them to win? 

 A minute-long thank-you speech means Mariah Carey can only perform a six-song medley rather than seven. The award I was most interested in was the best group. I voted for my favorite band every time MTV had the poll up on their Instagram story. I watched the show all night, waiting to see who was going to win, but the show ended without revealing who won. I had to read through Instagram comments just to find out who won, and it wasn’t even the group I voted for.

 In the future, the MTV VMAs should actually announce the awards live rather than focusing only on the title of each award. This gives time back to the people who worked hard on making the music that people have listened to all year.

 While I understand the musical performances are there to highlight the artists, every winner deserves to have a spotlight on them. Every genre deserves to be praised just as much as pop. Every technical award deserves to be appreciated just as much as the musical awards. The MTV VMAs should be about celebrating every aspect of music and music videos, not just a couple of awards.