2007 MTV Video Music Awards

The 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, honoring the best music videos from the previous year between June 2006 to June 2007, took place on September 9, in Las Vegas at The Palms. The 2007 VMAs were the smallest VMAs ever held in MTV history, eliminating 13 awards, and renaming many of the remaining awards. The 2008 awards restored most of the categories.

2007 MTV Video Music Awards
DateSunday, September 9, 2007
LocationThe Palms, Las Vegas, Nevada
CountryUnited States
Hosted bynone
Most awardsJustin Timberlake (4)
Most nominationsJustin Timberlake and Beyoncé (7 each)
Websitehttp://www.mtv.com/vma/2007/
Television/radio coverage
NetworkMTV

Overview

On August 7, 2007, the nominees were announced live on TRL with a special performance by Kanye West.

The week before the ceremony, the network aired VMA Week on TRL, along with other programming around the VMAs, including performances from top artists.

The VMAs aired live that evening at 9:00 p.m. ET on MTV. MTV originally announced that the show would never be re-aired in its entirety, but program listings eventually showed that that was not the case. Perhaps as a concession that TV viewing audiences for the VMAs were decreasing year over year, the 2007 VMAs were produced on a smaller budget and in front of a smaller crowd. Unlike in past years where the show was shown on MTV in 16:9 HDTV letterbox format, this year the ceremony was aired in 4:3 on the main channel. However, it was still produced in high definition, and was scheduled to air in full on MHD (the current MTV), Viacom's high definition channel, on September 22.[1] At the last moment, a 'best of' 90 minute clip show was substituted due to the various issues with the ceremony.[2]

The setting at the Palms was criticized for the small stage. Only four performances took place on the main stage, which consisted of a small layered stage that led off to a number of "island" stages that served as guests' tables. The tables then led to a smaller stage in the back, so that the performances could go a full 360°.

Awards

Winners are in bold text

Video of the Year

Rihanna (featuring Jay-Z) – "Umbrella"

Male Artist of the Year

Justin Timberlake

Female Artist of the Year

Fergie

Best Group

Fall Out Boy

Best New Artist

Gym Class Heroes

Quadruple Threat of the Year

Justin Timberlake

Most Earthshattering Collaboration

Beyoncé and Shakira – "Beautiful Liar"

Monster Single of the Year

Rihanna (featuring Jay-Z) – "Umbrella"

Best Director

Justin Timberlake – "What Goes Around... Comes Around" (Director: Samuel Bayer)

Best Choreography in a Video

Justin Timberlake (featuring T.I.) – "Let Me Talk to You/My Love" (Choreographer: Marty Kudelka)

Best Editing in a Video

Gnarls Barkley – "Smiley Faces" (Editor: Ken Mowe)

MTV2 On The Rise Contest

Flowers for Dorian won the MTV2 On The Rise contest. The prize for winning was getting flown to New York City to film 5 live videos in front of a green screen. The 5 videos were on Comcast's On Demand and one of the videos premiered at the VMAs. Flowers for Dorian's video for the song Love Remains premiered at the VMAs.

Performances

Unlike previous editions of the MTV Video Music Awards, 2007 brought, besides the main show venue, different suites, each with a host band performing and inviting special guests to perform. There were few Main Show performances, which happened at the same place where the awards were being televised. Mark Ronson performed at the Main Show with special guests.

Pre-show

Main Show

Small Mark Ronson Band Performances at the Main Show

Timbaland & Timberlake Fantasy Suite show

Fall Out Boy Fantasy Suite show

Kanye West Fantasy Suite show
  • Kanye West – Touch The Sky
  • Kanye West – Champion
  • Soulja Boy – Crank That
  • Kanye West – Can't Tell Me Nothing
  • Kanye West – I Wonder
  • Kanye West – Stronger
  • Kanye West featuring T-Pain – Good Life
  • Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx – Gold Digger

Foo Fighters Fantasy Suite show

Appearances

Britney Spears' performance

Britney Spears served as the opening act for the show, performing her new single "Gimme More". The performance was universally panned by critics. Jeff Leeds of The New York Times said that "no one was prepared for Sunday night's fiasco, in which a listless Ms. Spears teetered through her dance steps and mouthed only occasional words in a wan attempt to lip-synch her new single".[3] Vinay Menon of the Toronto Star commented Spears "looked hopelessly dazed. She was wearing the expression of somebody who had been deposited at the Palms Casino Resort by a tornado, one that promptly twisted away, taking her clothing and sense of purpose. ... [She was] lumbering, in slow motion, as if somebody had poured cement into her streetwalker boots".[4] David Willis of BBC stated her performance would "go down in the history books as being one of the worst to grace the MTV Awards".[5]

The day after the performance, American vlogger Chris Crocker posted a video to YouTube titled "Leave Britney alone!", in which he cried and defended Spears's performance, explaining that he did not want her to spiral out of control like Anna Nicole Smith, who had died in February 2007. Within the first 24 hours of its posting, the video accumulated over 2 million views.[6] "Leave Britney alone!" turned Crocker into an internet celebrity, and was featured on television shows such as The View and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was also parodied by dozens of other YouTube users, most famously by actor Seth Green.[6][7] An editor for YouTube said "the melodramatic two-minute clip made Crocker an instant YouTube star" and named it one of the top videos of 2007.[8] Wired named it the top video of 2007.[9]

Kid Rock/Tommy Lee altercation

Kid Rock and Tommy Lee were involved in an altercation at the Video Music Awards during the come-back performance of Alicia Keys. A source reported that Tommy Lee was sitting with magician Criss Angel when the two went to visit Diddy, who was sitting close to Kid Rock. Shortly after the two went over to see Diddy, "all hell broke loose", that source told Access Hollywood. It is reported that Kid Rock sucker punched Tommy Lee in his back. The two, both ex-husbands of Pamela Anderson were broken up, and both were escorted from the resort. Angel was removed a short time later. The cause of the fight is unknown.[10]

TMZ.com reported that the Las Vegas Police questioned Kid Rock, but no arrests were made.

An eyewitness reported to TMZ that "Tommy got it pretty bad."[11] The incident was confirmed by Palms Hotel and Casino public relations representative Larry Fink. MTV Host Sway Calloway said "Tommy Lee was sitting by P-Diddy and Kid Rock just got off stage and from what I saw he walked up to Lee and just decked him."

On-air reactions

  • Presenter Jamie Foxx said "Let's stop all of this white-on-white crime."
  • Diddy made a remark that "It's not just the hip-hop artists that sometimes have a problem."

Non-music entertainment

Caitlin Upton, Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2007 – famous for her incoherent response to why she thought 1/5 of Americans can't locate the US on a world map, which received millions of views on the internet on websites such as YouTube and third-runner up from Miss Teen USA – did a parody of her response when she was presenting.

Shia LaBeouf revealed the name of the fourth Indiana Jones film: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was confirmed by the official site.

Lineup changes

Amy Winehouse's record label canceled her performance for the show following Lily Allen's withdrawal from the event due to issues obtaining a visa. The two were rumored to perform a duet.[12]

The French electronic group Justice was going to perform at the show with Mark Ronson during one of his VMA spots with an additional special guest.[13] The group had to drop out due to their very, very late arrival in Las Vegas stemming from having to fly in from Europe.[14]

Madonna was rumored to perform with Justin Timberlake according to various Canadian newspapers, but her publicist denied any involvement with the event.

See also

References
  1. "Rounding Up HD News: Marvel at Britney in High Def – TVWeek – News". Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-09-13.
  2. "MTV Yanks Britney's Flop From MHD Schedule". Archived from the original on 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
  3. Sanneh, Kelefe (2007-11-29). "'Miss Bad Media Karma' Sings, Too". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
  4. Menon, Vinay (2007-09-11). "Get out of the spotlight, Britney". Toronto Star. Michael Cooke. Archived from the original on 2011-06-06. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
  5. Willis, David (2007-09-10). "Britney's MTV comeback falls flat". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
  6. Manjoo, Farhad (2007-09-12). "Talking to the 'Leave Britney Alone!' guy". Salon.com. Archived from the original on 2016-07-02. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  7. Press, Associated (2011-09-21). "'Leave Britney Alone' Guy Chris Crocker Hopes to Find TV Stardom". Fox News. Fox. Retrieved 2011-08-25.
  8. Adegoke, Yinka (2007-12-28). "Obama Girl, Britney Boy Top YouTube Videos". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
  9. Sjöberg, Lore (2007-12-18). "The Year in Online Video 2007". Wired. Archived from the original on 2008-04-05. Retrieved 2008-01-18.
  10. "Fight Breaks Out Between Tommy Lee & Kid Rock At VMAs". Access Hollywood. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  11. "Security: Cops on the Hunt for Kid Rock After VMA Fight – TMZ.com". Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  12. "Winehouse Scraps VMA Gig". MTV.co.uk. August 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  13. "Justice To Perform on VMAs – Kinda". MTV2. September 7, 2007. Archived from the original on 11 September 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
  14. "No Justice". MTV2. September 9, 2007. Archived from the original on 12 September 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
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