“Once upon a time …” Learn about the history of Los Premios MTV Latin America

On October 1, 1993, MTV landed in Latin America, this happened thirteen years after the birth of the video chain that completely changed an entire music industry.

“The only place where you can see and hear your favorite music for the first time, every day and every night of the whole week, of every month, of every year,” you could hear yourself saying to Gonzalo who was accompanied by Ruth and Alfred, the Latin VJs (Video Jockeys).

They inaugurated this new era with programs adapted from the US network for the Latino public and where the first video broadcast was “We are South American rockers” of the Chilean group The prisoners.

But this time we will not speak properly of this. We are about to witness a new delivery of the MTV Millennial Awards or the already consolidated MIAW but there is an award that was key to the history in our territory: The MTV Awards or initially called the Latin American Video Music Awards.

The beggining

On October 24, 2002, the first ceremony was held at the Jackie Gleason Theater from Miami where Diego Luna was the driver next to Mario pergolini. In that edition Shakira, Juanes, La Ley, Manu Chao, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Sin Bandera, Diego Torres and more were awarded. This was the beginning to give space to Latin America and not only to recognize music that was not in Spanish.

The trophy that was awarded, unlike the Moon Man of the United States, was a pink and curved language whose meaning was the inclusion of Spanish, a language that unites the Spanish-speaking territories.

Seven awards were held in Miami (2002-2004), Mexico City (2006-2007), Guadalajara (2008) and the last one in three venues: Bogotá, Buenos Aires, CDMX and Los Angeles (2009).

If something characterized these shows it was that all South American countries were considered (with the exception of Brazil) without distinction of musical genre and adapting to the audience of that time.

Surprise collaborations

Latin America has a wide range of artists and at Los Premios it was always common to see combinations that we could never have imagined.

Can you imagine seeing Daddy yankee next to Julieta Venegas? That happened in 2006 when the Tijuana native performed “You are for me” accompanied by the Monterrey group Kinky and minutes later they were joined by the reggaeton player who started the first wave of reggaetón in the mainstream world.

In 2007 another of the surprises was when the singer Hilary Duff it was united to the natives of Monterrey; Plasticine Mosh, band that accompanied her to interpret “With Love”.

Like the Black Stripes (the Latin version of The White Stripes) joined Alex Lora, Andrea Echeverri, Charly Alberti, Jorge González, Juanes, Plastilina Mosh, Ricky Martin and Vincentian performing a medley that included “Seven Nation Army”, “We Are South American Rockers”, “Bolero Falaz”, “Gimme Tha Power”, “Livin ‘La Vida Loca” and “The matador”, this moment occurred in 2003 and was not seen again at an awards ceremony.

Another of the most memorable collaborations was when Paulina Rubio (who was the first woman to host such awards in 2004) joined Kinky to interpret your version of “I Was Made For Loving”, original theme of Kiss.

Most awarded characters

Despite only having 7 editions, there were characters awarded but the ones who received the most awards were: Shakira with 12 languages, Juanes with 9 and the Mexican group Panda with 8.

Regarding awards by countries, Mexico won 51 awards, Colombia with 26, Argentina with 25, the United States with 25, Chile with 12, Puerto Rico with 9 and Peru with 6. Other countries that were awarded were Canada, Spain and Venezuela.

Key moments

In 2008 the 15 years of MTV in Latin America were celebrated and with it a ceremony was held in the city of Guadalajara. The Telmex Auditorium witnessed one of the funniest moments in the history of Los Premios.

Katy Perry started his career and played “I Kissed a Girl”. During her show, the American singer threw herself into a large cake, that was part of the act, but she did not count on the fact that when she left the stage she would slip on the pastry cream. Here is the moment.

In 2007, Belinda won the Video of the Year category for “Beautiful betrayal”. This was presented by Avril lavigne but with what he did not count Beli is that his triumph would be overshadowed by the interpreter of “Girlfriend.” The producers thought it would be a good idea to raise fans. After receiving the statuette, they all went with the Canadian singer. See it with your own eyes.

Driving Paulina Rubio in 2004 it was one of the most commented since La Chica Dorada was the first woman to head an awards ceremony for the MTV network. In his participation we saw his great sense of humor and waste of sensuality to “open the mind” to viewers.

The end

In 2009, the last Los Premios ceremony took place as MTV entered a new era in which the musical grid would diminish, giving more space to Reality Shows. Eduardo Lebrija in 2010 he declared for The universal the reasons why there would be no prizes.

«This year we made the decision not to do the MTV awards. Finally, it is not that the awards are canceled, but to change strategies according to the new times. It was very important to bring to Mexico a global franchise such as World Stage, which is in charge of doing concerts with triple A artists around the world ».

Many followers on social networks hope that one day these awards will return since they consider that it is something that the MTV network owes them after they removed the music from their programming. Do you think they should return or that they have already completed their cycle?

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