Best and worst, tidbits from the 2003 MTV Asia Awards

Best and worst, tidbits from the 2003 MTV Asia Awards

Kenny Santana, Contributor, Singapore

The winners have been announced; the awards have been given. But
there were many things at the recent 2003 MTV Asia Awards here
that deserved to prizes.

Certain things that happened at the venue that the audience at
home did not get to see, like little mishaps for instance, or the
best presenters.

The Jakarta Post gives an inside look at the event, which was
the second held, and presents its own list of awards.

Best use of the stage: Missy Elliot

As the opening act, hip-hop diva Elliott made optimal use of
the space on the stage. Crooning her Work It single with two
giant puppets of herself, a trishaw and dozens of dancers, the
stage was really crowded. But it was a great performance.

Most In Demand: Avril Lavigne

Fans outside the venue knew who they wanted: the hot Canadian
singer. Despite other top names like Missy Elliot, Robbie
Williams and Jay Chou, most of them said they wanted to see
Lavigne. The 17-year-old singer proved that she deserved the
attention by grabbing three awards that night.

Best Presenters: Kris Dayanti and Blue

Kris managed to look at ease with British boyband Blue. She
was rather relaxed, her English was not bad and she chatted with
them before presenting the awards. They really looked comfortable
with each other. Indonesians will be able to appreciate Kris much
more after this.

Worst Presenters: David Tao and Atomic Kitten

Reading straight from the teleprompter, Tao from Taiwan tried
too hard to make jokes about animals. Too bad he didn't pull it
off. The sexy kittens didn't help either.

The Should've-been-an-MTV-VJ award: Peter Corp Dyrendal

The nominee for Favorite Thai Artist presented the Style Award
for Avril Lavigne. He looked cool, smart, unpretentious and
relaxed. While other artists competed with each other to wear the
latest and craziest fashions, Dyrendal wore a simple and sporty
T-shirt. He should have been named top MTV VJ, as he has all it
takes to become one, more so than existing VJs.

Most Unbelievable Winner: F4

The Taiwanese singing sensation received the Inspirational
Award, something like a Lifetime Achievement Award. If being just
two years in the music industry and winning the hearts of teenage
girls around the region can really carry you that far, we'd be
surprised. Really surprised. Especially since last year's award
went to Jackie Chan.

Best Speech: Robbie Williams

He made it short and he made it fun. He showed us that
being confident and appearing a little vain is not necessarily
annoying. And he gave a great performance.

Worst Speech: D2B

When the winner of the Favorite Thai Artist was announced,
boyband D2B walked on stage and accepted it with a gasping speech
in which they giggled and babbled incoherently. Maybe they were
tired, excited or something, but they were totally annoying.

Shortest Speech: Jay Chou

The Taiwanese singer only said thank you in Chinese, and then
made his way off the stage. Short and simple, but leaving no
lasting impression.

Best Performer: Matchbox 20

The in-demand band lived up to expectation by performing their
latest single Disease smoothly. They really rocked.

Worst Performer: Atomic Kitten

It's not that they're bad. The Tide is High was sung with no
improvisation at all, leaving the audience wondering whether they
were really singing or were lip synching.

Most Overacting Performer: Stephanie Sun

Yes, she performed and accepted an award in her own country in
front of audience of compatriots. But kept shouting out her name
and the name of her country on stage? That was way too much.

Most Embarrassing Incident: Suede

The British lads didn't do anything wrong, the microphone did.
When the Brit pop band's frontman Brett Anderson tried to speak,
the microphone just didn't work. When he moved to another
microphone, it made a terrible noise. What a shame.

Best but Worst Collaboration: Four Asian Divas (Indonesian Kris
Dayanti, Malaysian Siti Nurhaliza, Thail Palmy and Singaporean He
Yao Sun)

It was wonderful to see four Southeast Asian Divas sing
together. But hey, they didn't truly sing together. Each of them
sang their own song separately. It was a nice try putting them on
stage together, but it would've been better if they actually sang
a song together.

Best Outfit: CoCo Lee

It was that tight red dress CoCo Lee wore during the opening
song that caught the audience's attention. She danced and moved
so well in the dress. And yes, the cleavage did matter.