Every year viewers anticipate watching the MTV Video Music Awards to find out who is going to deliver the most shocking performance on or offstage. Surprisingly, however, the 2001 MTV VMAs, which aired live on September 6, failed to live up to expectations.
Even actor and comedian Jamie Foxx, who hosted the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards wasn’t outrageous, let alone funny (although he admittedly did better than last year’s hosts Shawn and Marlon Wayans).
Fatboy Slim’s “Weapon of Choice” video was the big winner of this year’s VMAs, winning six of the nine awards for which it was nominated, but it was the kitschy video “Lady Marmalade” that took home the Best Video of the Year award.
“Lady Marmalade,” the Moulin Rouge-inspired video, was a collaboration featuring Pink, Christina Aguilera, Mya, Lil’ Kim, and Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot. It also received an award for best video from a film.
The night’s other big winner was ‘N Sync, who received four awards for their special-effects laden video, “Pop,” including the Viewers Choice award.
The “Weapon of Choice” video by Fatboy Slim, doesn’t even feature the artist; its star is actor and dancer Christopher Walken, tapping and flying to the music. Among the early awards it nabbed was for Best Direction, for Spike Jonze, and Best Choreography.
No Doubt’s Gwen Stefani won both the Best Female and Best Male video awards as her collaborations with Eve in “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” and with Moby in “South Side,” both garnered awards.
As quadruple winner ‘N Sync capped off a colorful rendition of “Pop,” which had the stage crafted into a giant ad space to correlate with the theme of the song’s consumable product message, Michael Jackson made a surprise appearance. An enormous Etch-a-Sketch board was lowered as the words “Kings of Pop” read on screen. As the “s” was dropped spelling out “King of Pop,” Jackson emerged and danced robotically for only a few seconds (without singing) to ‘N Sync’s hit but, nevertheless, received a standing ovation.
One of the truly hilarious moments in the show came when Triumph the Insult Comic Dog from Conan O’ Brien made fun of Carson Daly and Jennifer Lopez.
“J.Lo, please let me sniff your butt. For a dog it’s like climbing Mt. Everest,” the dog snipped.
But most of the excitement stopped there. Even Britney Spears’ performance of her new song “I’m a Slave 4 You” disappointed and surely failed to top last years “Oops…I Did It Again” striptease gyrations. Despite the teen queen slithering on stage with a snake and using caged cheetahs (despite reported opposition from PETA), the song and performance failed to elicit any jungle fever.
Macy Gray showed up Mudvayne when she presented the MTV2 award, spotlighting emerging artists, to the group. Gray told the crowd “to take a minute and concentrate on my dress,” which read: “My new album drops Sept. 18, 2001.” She then turned around and had the audience read: “Buy It.”
The night experienced a technical problem as U2 was about to perform “Elevation,” and “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of,” forcing MTV to cut to commercials until it was fixed. The wait was worth it as U2 rocked the house with one of the best performances of the night.
“So MTV weren’t paying their electricity bill,” said Bono before the group received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award for lifetime achievement.
The 2001 MTV VMAs were the longest in recent memory going over by almost thirty minutes for a total air time of about 3 1/2 hours. Foxx’s lame jokes didn’t help move the show at any faster pace. Next year MTV needs to reintroduce Chris Rock, who deserves his title as the Funniest Man in America. As stated earlier, this year’s VMAs were comparatively tame to years before. Award shows are a dime a dozen, and MTV, which used to be a few steps ahead of them all, seems to be losing ground.
