Canada Got Peak Lorde At The Much Music Video Awards
The Canadian music network Much Music is the station that employs Fucked Up frontman Damian Abraham as a VJ, but it’s still best understood as a more-local MTV analog, something that comes through pretty clearly if you look at the station’s annual Much Music Video Awards show, which went down this past weekend. Despite its nationalistic bent, the big winners were all straight-up pop stars; Hedley, who I’ve never heard of, came away with more trophies than anyone else, and Drake took come a couple, too. But the night’s real star had to be visiting New Zealander Lorde, who turned in the most definitively Lorde performance I’ve ever seen. Doing a medley of “Tennis Court” and “Team,” she displayed a stage presence that’s approaching Kate Bush levels of lovable, dramatic goofiness. The hair flips and zombie-marionette rap hands are only becoming more prevalent, and the collapsing-with-a-lamp thing at the end was a nice touch, a possible nod to the talking heads’ Stop Making Sense. Meanwhile, a very different young pop queen also got a showcase spot: Ariana Grande, who closed out the show by singing “Problem” and cranking up the pop-art/Bond-girl style of the video even further. (Iggy Azalea wasn’t there, but they did pipe her verse in.) Watch those two performances and check out the list of winners below.
AWARD WINNERS:
Video Of The Year: Hedley – “Anything”
International Video Of The Year (Artist): Lorde – “Royals”
International Video Of The Year (Group): Imagine Dragons – “Demons”
Pop Video Of The Year: Hedley – “Anything”
Dance Video Of The YEar: Autoerotique – “Asphyxiation”
Hip-Hop Video Of The Year: Drake – “Worst Behavior”
Rock/Alternative Video Of The Year: Sam Roberts – “Shapeshifters”
International Video Of The Year By A Canadian: Drake – “Hold On, We’re Going Home” (Feat. Majid Jordan)
Director Of The Year: Thugli – “Run This” (Amos LeBlanc, Ohji Inoue)
Post-Production Of The Year: City and Colour – “Thirst”
MuchFact Video Of The Year: SonReal – “Everywhere We Go”
Your Fave Video: Hedley – “Anything”
Your Fave Artist Or Group: Justin Bieber
Your Fave International Artist Or Group: Selena Gomez