
YouTube Music Awards: Lady Gaga performs, Eminem wins
It was an awards show unlike any other.
Hosted
by actor Jascon Schartzman and comedian Reggie Watts, the first-ever (and
entirely unscripted) YouTube awards show may have been less polished than its
MTV and MuchMusic cousins, but boasted stars and surprises aplenty.
Featuring
live music videos and performances, Canadian rock band Arcade Fire opened the
90-minute show with their song “Afterlife,” while Greta Gerwig did a kooky interpretive dance.
Later, Lady Gaga wept
over a piano as she debuted her track “Dope,” off of her upcoming ARTPOP album.
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Things got weirder from there, with crying babies making an appearance and a live performance of a “choose-your-own-adventure” style music video by Avicii, which ended in a fake double suicide, as chosen by the audience.
Eminem
won artist of the year, a top honour he earned for being the most watched,
shared, liked and subscribed-to artist of 2013.
Taylor Swift's “I Knew You Were Trouble” won
the YouTube phenomenon award for generating the most fan videos.Other winners
included Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis, who earned the Breakthrough award, which
celebrates artists with the most growth in views and subscribers.
Produced by director Spike Jonze and streamed
by YouTube rather than broadcast on television, the show marks the video hosting
site’s strategic move into the music industry as it plans to introduce
a paid music service by the end of the year.
Of course, YouTube has been an influential force in music
since its inception, with pop sensations like Justin Bieber famously getting
their start on Google-owned site.