1996 MTV Video Music Awards

The 1996 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 4, 1996, honoring the best music videos from June 16, 1995, to June 14, 1996. The show was hosted by Dennis Miller at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

1996 MTV Video Music Awards
DateWednesday, September 4, 1996
LocationRadio City Music Hall, New York, New York
CountryUnited States
Hosted byDennis Miller
Most awardsThe Smashing Pumpkins (7)
Most nominationsThe Smashing Pumpkins (9)
Television/radio coverage
NetworkMTV
Produced byAndy Schuon
Directed byBeth McCarthy

The show centered on The Smashing Pumpkins, who led the pack that night with nine nominations. Having lost their touring keyboardist days before this appearance to a heroin overdose, and kicked longtime, original drummer Jimmy Chamberlin out of the band, the band opened the show as a three-piece, performing an awe-inspiring, emotional version of "Tonight, Tonight." What is more, the Pumpkins ended up winning seven of the awards they were up for: "Tonight, Tonight" earned six wins out of its eight nominations, including Video of the Year, thus making it the night's most nominated and biggest winning video; while their video for "1979" earned the one Moonman it was nominated for: Best Alternative Video.

The next biggest nominee and winner that night was Canadian singer Alanis Morissette, who won three out of her six nominations for her video "Ironic." Tying with her in terms of nominations was Icelandic singer Björk, who also received six; however, her video for "It's Oh So Quiet" only took home one Moonman for Best Choreography. Closely following with five nominations each were Coolio, the Foo Fighters, and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Out of these, though, only the former two ended up taking home some Moonmen for their videos. Coolio won three, as "Gangsta's Paradise" won two out of its three nominations, and "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" won one out of its two nominations, while the Foo Fighters' "Big Me" took home one Moonman for Best Group Video. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, meanwhile, went home empty-handed.

Highlights of the show included a pre-show set by No Doubt, who performed on the entrance marquee of Radio City Music Hall. There was also a short-lived reunion of the four original members of Van Halen, who had not appeared together at that time for more than a decade, presenting the award for Best Male Video, as well as a live interlink with astronauts on the Mir space station. The show also marked Tupac Shakur's final public appearance before being shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, three days later on September 7, dying of his wounds on September 13.

Background

MTV announced in June that the 1996 Video Music Awards would be held at Radio City Music Hall for the third consecutive year on September 4.[1] Nominees were announced at a press conference hosted by Hootie & the Blowfish and MTV president Judy McGrath on July 30.[2] Dennis Miller was announced as the host on August 14.[3] The ceremony broadcast was preceded by the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards Opening Act. Hosted by Kurt Loder and Tabitha Soren with reports from Serena Altschul, Chris Connelly, John Norris, and Alison Stewart, the broadcast featured red carpet interviews, pre-taped interviews with The Smashing Pumpkins and Oasis, a report on the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry, and performances from Beck and No Doubt.

Performances
List of musical performances
Artist(s) Song(s)
Pre-show
Beck "Where It's At"[4]
No Doubt "Spiderwebs"
"Just a Girl"[5]
Main show
The Smashing Pumpkins "Tonight, Tonight"
Fugees Medley
"Killing Me Softly"
"Fu-Gee-La"
"Ready or Not"
"If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Nas)
Metallica "Until It Sleeps"
LL Cool J "Doin' It"
Neil Young "The Needle and the Damage Done"[lower-alpha 1]
Hootie & the Blowfish "Sad Caper"
Alanis Morissette "Your House"
Bush "Machinehead"
The Cranberries "Salvation"
Oasis "Champagne Supernova"
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony "Tha Crossroads"
Kiss "Rock and Roll All Nite"[lower-alpha 2]
  1. Live from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland
  2. Live from beneath the Brooklyn Bridge

Presenters

Main show

Post-show

Winners and nominees

Winners are in bold text.

Video of the Year Best Male Video
Best Female Video Best Group Video
Best New Artist in a Video Best Hard Rock Video
Best R&B Video Best Rap Video
Best Dance Video Best Alternative Video
Best Video from a Film Breakthrough Video
Best Direction in a Video Best Choreography in a Video
Best Special Effects in a Video Best Art Direction in a Video
Best Editing in a Video Best Cinematography in a Video
Viewer's Choice International Viewer's Choice: MTV Asia
International Viewer's Choice: MTV Brasil International Viewer's Choice: MTV Europe
International Viewer's Choice: MTV India International Viewer's Choice: MTV Japan
International Viewer's Choice: MTV Latin America International Viewer's Choice: MTV Mandarin
  • Nana Tang – "Freedom"
    • Dou Wei – "Outside the Window"
    • Andy Lau – "Truly Forever"
    • Eric Moo – "Love Is So Heavy"
    • Regina Tseng – "From Dark to Light"

See also

References
  1. Huff, Richard (June 11, 1996). "MTV Awards stay here". New York Daily News – via Newspapers.com.
  2. Jolson-Colburn, Jeffrey (August 1, 1996). "Smashing Pumpkins rule MTV's video nominations". The Commercial Appeal. The Hollywood Reporter – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Slewinski, Christy (August 15, 1996). "Dot's all..." New York Daily News – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "MTV Music - VMA RED CARPET". MTV. Archived from the original on 2009-06-10. Retrieved 2007-08-05.
  5. "YouTube - No Doubt - Just A Girl 1996 VMA Preshow". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2015-07-06. Retrieved 2009-07-29.
  6. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "2/3 - Skank recebe prêmio "escolha da audiência" no VMB 1996 por Hortência". YouTube.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.