Here we have the MTV Europe Music Awards 2019 and in this title you can see the year when this took place (November 2019 in fact, so it is little over a year old), the broadcasting station behind it and that it is an awards ceremony. The latter is only partially true though and this is the show's biggest problem I would say. It is one stage performance after the next and in-between it seems they almost forgot about the awards, even if the photo here on imdb could let you think otherwise. I find it a bit sad though. Of course, this is a common problem really and also the case for many other awards ceremonies. But here it is so pathetic really that they announce absolute key categories within seconds, categories that could have made for the highlight of the night at the end of the show and they rush it somewhere in the middle. No excuse for that, even if most people maybe want to see their artists perform. Then go watch a concert DVD I say. Anyway, as for the basics: Here we got two directors and two writers and three of those four have been fairly prolific with this kind of shows, especially Dugdale and Spackman. I will spare you the rest of the names as you can check them out for yourself. The quantity may seem a bit (too) much for ashow that runs for minimally over 1.5 hours, but it does not surprise me after I have seen a dozen people working in these two departments for the BET Awards for example. The host here is Becky G. Cannot say I am familiar with her at all, but at least looks-wise it is definitely my loss because she is an absolute stunner. Her performance towards the end of the show was tolerable I'd say. Nothing bad, nothing spectacular. It is probably not a coincidence they got her to host here because, as you don't really see from her alias, she has a Hispanic background, American with Hispanic background and the show was held in Seville that night in November 2019. So there is more of a Spanish impact in here than usual, a great deal of Spanish language, mostly translations. (The part very early on with Becky and her translator was kinda cute.) This is of course not needed when the show took place in other big European cities the years before. As this is from fairly late in 2019, it was also one of the last big awards shows before the pandemic hit and it already feels a bit awkward with this now going on for considerably over half a year to see a location this packed with people. They may have liked the many stage performances and lacking focus in terms of actual awards being given out, but I know I did not, which at least partially explains my rating.
There's more reasons: The music also did not blow me away. It is tough for me to take shows serioiusly that have awards for Nicki Minaj, Green Day and BTS. The latter were especially pathetic. Man, their voices are so nothing special at all. Unreal stuff they are this big. I don't like Green Day, especially when they get political, and I think they are terribly overrated, but compared to BTS they are kings. Oh wait, I don't think Minaj was there to perform, but I guess they would have let her immediately if she was. The rest applies though. In general, many big American stars weren't there. take Eilish (who I still deem a bit on the overrated side), Shawn Mendes, Swiift as well I believe. At least, they got most of the winners to record a little video and say thanks. That was nice. What was not nice is the tendency for these shows to really get commercial. I mean it is okay they are delivering 30 minutes of commercials for two hours of entertainment and perfectly fine because they need to make money, but having two brands already included here at the five-second mark is not cool. And awards (categories) being sponsored by brands is also something I kinda despise, but it is getting more and more common it seems. Terrible trend, especially if there are barely any awards included here during the broadcast in the sense of reading out all the nominees, announcing the winner and having him/her/them give an acceptance speech. Was there even a "them"? If so, then not too many. Back to the performances, Dua Lipa also does not impress me a bit. Have seen her quite a few times not and I am still not impressed. Halsey was fine though, nice set decoration too and she also toom home the first award of the night, maybe partially because she was there in person. Oh and "Wonderwall" is still ana amazing song after all these years. Actually surprised me a bit they brought Gallagher to the stage as he is probably not one the target audience for this show is particularly aware with. But if they are taken a bit back this way and maybe discover something new/old, I am all for it. But what was up with these artists from all kinds of countries stepping out and just being there on one occasion in the second half of the show. So random. Was this supposed to show tolerance, diversity? I did not buy it one bit. Besides, I am from Germany and I had absolutely no clue who the German selection was. So certainly no real big names there either. But Old Town Road is still pretty cool, would have deserved a bigger inclusion that night. Oh yeah, as for the people actually there and not just via cam, go check out the "cast list" for this one. One mention goes to Terry Crews. They very much made their point they do not want him at the BET Awards (and I could not respect him any more for that), but here he is still a welcome and appreciated and fun guest for sure. That would be all then. The good moments were way too rare and for each of these, we had maybe two or three forgettable, if not weak, inclusions, so the outcome can only get a massive thumbs-down from me this time. Highly not recommended sadly. I definitely wanted to like this more and I hope they can improve again for the 2021 edition. At least, things cannot really get way worse.
There's more reasons: The music also did not blow me away. It is tough for me to take shows serioiusly that have awards for Nicki Minaj, Green Day and BTS. The latter were especially pathetic. Man, their voices are so nothing special at all. Unreal stuff they are this big. I don't like Green Day, especially when they get political, and I think they are terribly overrated, but compared to BTS they are kings. Oh wait, I don't think Minaj was there to perform, but I guess they would have let her immediately if she was. The rest applies though. In general, many big American stars weren't there. take Eilish (who I still deem a bit on the overrated side), Shawn Mendes, Swiift as well I believe. At least, they got most of the winners to record a little video and say thanks. That was nice. What was not nice is the tendency for these shows to really get commercial. I mean it is okay they are delivering 30 minutes of commercials for two hours of entertainment and perfectly fine because they need to make money, but having two brands already included here at the five-second mark is not cool. And awards (categories) being sponsored by brands is also something I kinda despise, but it is getting more and more common it seems. Terrible trend, especially if there are barely any awards included here during the broadcast in the sense of reading out all the nominees, announcing the winner and having him/her/them give an acceptance speech. Was there even a "them"? If so, then not too many. Back to the performances, Dua Lipa also does not impress me a bit. Have seen her quite a few times not and I am still not impressed. Halsey was fine though, nice set decoration too and she also toom home the first award of the night, maybe partially because she was there in person. Oh and "Wonderwall" is still ana amazing song after all these years. Actually surprised me a bit they brought Gallagher to the stage as he is probably not one the target audience for this show is particularly aware with. But if they are taken a bit back this way and maybe discover something new/old, I am all for it. But what was up with these artists from all kinds of countries stepping out and just being there on one occasion in the second half of the show. So random. Was this supposed to show tolerance, diversity? I did not buy it one bit. Besides, I am from Germany and I had absolutely no clue who the German selection was. So certainly no real big names there either. But Old Town Road is still pretty cool, would have deserved a bigger inclusion that night. Oh yeah, as for the people actually there and not just via cam, go check out the "cast list" for this one. One mention goes to Terry Crews. They very much made their point they do not want him at the BET Awards (and I could not respect him any more for that), but here he is still a welcome and appreciated and fun guest for sure. That would be all then. The good moments were way too rare and for each of these, we had maybe two or three forgettable, if not weak, inclusions, so the outcome can only get a massive thumbs-down from me this time. Highly not recommended sadly. I definitely wanted to like this more and I hope they can improve again for the 2021 edition. At least, things cannot really get way worse.
