'MTV' ready to honor Asia's best
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Can't stand it, can't live without it. That's MTV for some people.
Seemingly getting stronger in its popularity in this region, the television network will hold a major event next month.
Next Saturday, or 02-02-02, MTV Asia will put on what is dubbed the largest gathering of international and Asian talents ever seen in this region.
To be held in the Singapore Indoor Stadium, the event, the station claims, is the first and biggest music award in this region.
The three-hour show will be hosted by American teenage pop star Mandy Moore and Boyzone's Ronan Keating before a live audience of some 7,000 invitees.
The event will be taped and broadcast to over 150 million households across Asia, with portions of the programming carried across MTV's global network.
There will 20 different awards presented during the show, including 11 Favorite Music Artist From Asia awards, six International Music Awards, one Favorite Fashion Designer Award, one Favorite Movie Award and one Inspiration Award.
Some of the nominees, like Irish boyband Westlife, will also be in attendance and there will be the added attraction of French circus group Cirque Du Soleil.
Like any other MTV awards show, the winners of the MTV Asia Awards will be picked by viewers, who have been voting since last November through an open poll.
The exception is the inspiration award, which is a special honor presented by MTV to either an inspiring individual whom young adults across Asia admire or to an organization that has contributed to the betterment of Asian youth and the region as a whole.
This event has also kept MTV Southeast Asia-Indonesia busy. Cooperating with the likes of record companies and radio stations, MTV selected the nominees for the Indonesian Favorite Music Artist.
"We then chose five artists with the highest album sales in the past one and a half years," Muthia Farida, MTV Southeast Asia-Indonesia public relations and communication executive, told The Jakarta Post recently.
The nominees are bands Dewa, Jamrud, Padi, Sheila on 7 and singer Krisdayanti.
"The viewers then vote for winners from the five nominees in an open poll from Jan. 11 to Jan. 31," she said.
Padi, Muthia added, will perform on the show together with surprise artists.
However, what is the real impact of this event to this country's music industry?
Muthia argued it made a big contribution because the awards show is international recognition of the quality of the artists.
Noted musician Chrisye, meanwhile, said that winning such an award made no contribution whatsoever. Chrisye won the Asia Viewer's Choice Award in 1998 at the MTV Video Music Awards 1998 for his song Kala Cinta Menggoda (When Love Tempts).
"It probably put Indonesia's name on the map but it doesn't have any effect for the local music industry. If there is any impact, in selling records, it's not significant," he told The Jakarta Post.
According to Chrisye, such an event is strictly business for the television network.
"I think it's only aimed at strengthening its grip," he added.
Chrisye has a point. The five nominees in the Indonesian favorite music artist category have already sold hundreds of thousands or even over two million copies of their albums. Whether they end up with an award or not will not make any major difference to their popularity at home.
What matters now is will this event really put Indonesian name on the regional, or international, map of the music industry? Will other countries start to buy records of Indonesian artists?
We'll have to see about that.