There's something fishy about the 2017 MTV EMA winners

17 November 2017 - 14:23 By yolisa mkele
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Detroit rapper Eminem performs in London on Sunday night after winning the EMAs' best hip-hop artist award.
Detroit rapper Eminem performs in London on Sunday night after winning the EMAs' best hip-hop artist award.
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When the latest edition of the Oxford Thesaurus is printed, the tweed-wearing boffins who update it should list the phrase "award show" as a possible synonym for the word "scam".

There might have been a time when award shows, especially music awards, were a relatively accurate quality barometer and a sincere attempt at recognising leaders in their field for any given year.

But now they seem to have devolved into little more than poorly concealed marketing exercises aimed at drumming up support for whomever's budget is willing to accommodate the cost.

Nowhere was this more evident than at this year's MTV EMAs, or Europe Music Awards, held in London last Sunday.

If MTV awards shows were members of Destiny's Child, then the EMAs would be Kelly Rowland. They're not as famous as the flagship VMAs, but they're well known and relatively well liked.

While the name may suggest they cater strictly to Europe, the EMAs try to honour artists from as many parts of the globe as possible.

The credibility of the awards was dealt a significant blow earlier this week when a visibly confused Eminem was called on stage to accept the award for best hip-hop artist, despite the fact that his last full album came out in 2013 and he has been relatively quiet ever since.

His competition in that category included Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Future and Post Malone, all of whom dropped acclaimed music this year.

Similarly, rockers Thirty Seconds to Mars won the award for best alternative act, despite silence for four years.

While both are incredibly talented, it seems more than a little strange that they would win awards this year, given their relative inactivity.

The story begins to smell fishier than old trout when one considers that both have recently released new singles. Interestingly, both songs are called Walk on Water.

LISTEN | Walk on Water by Eminem feat. Beyonce 

Eminem's new album is imminent and Thirty Seconds to Mars have just announced a huge world tour and a documentary due for release early next year. Both are signed to Interscope. There's enough smoke here to asphyxiate a pachyderm.

Before you know it, money is falling from the sky for record executives.

To be honest, all of this is not new. Awards have been bought and used as advertisements for years and egregious decisions are part of what makes them entertaining. But this might be the first time that an awards platform has been so brazenly used as a marketing gimmick.

This article was originally published in The Times.

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