MTV Europe Music Awards

1994–1999

1994: The first MTV Europe Music Awards in 1994 were held on 24 November; five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

George Michael performed "Jesus To A Child" and "Freedom" surrounded by many famous models including Naomi Campbell and Bono received the Free Your Mind Award on behalf of Amnesty International.

1995: French nuclear testing in the South Pacific got the most attention at the 1995 ceremony. During his acceptance speech after winning the award for Best Rock, Bon Jovi lead singer Jon Bon Jovi said: "The only enemy is ignorance. Peace, people. Let's get rid of all this nuclear testing." and U2's Bono said: "What a city, what a night, what a crowd, what a bomb, what a mistake, what a wanker you have for a President." referring to nuclear testing. Greenpeace, the environmental group that has staged creative and controversial protests around the testing site at Mururoa Atoll, took the Free Your Mind award for its campaign against the underground nuclear blasts. "Stop abusing the earth," urged Madonna in a videotaped segment before designer agnès b. picked up the award for Greenpeace.

1996: During their performance Metallica performed the songs "Last Caress" and "So What?" instead of performing their single "King Nothing" as scheduled. The MTV executives told the band that they weren't allowed to use any curse words during their time on live TV, and upset with the scripted, family-friendly MTV antics, Metallica simply played non-TV friendly songs. The song "So What?" is known for its amount of expletives and references to bestiality among many other controversial lyrics while "Last Caress" has lyrics pertaining to murder and rape. As a result of their performance Metallica's performance and references to Metallica have been removed from future broadcasts of the ceremony.

1997: U2 opened the show performing "Mofo" dressed in boxing gowns.

1998: On this year 6 new categories were introduced including the MTV Selects; UK and Ireland, Northern, Central and Southern.

Faithless opened the show with "God is a DJ" and Madonna performed "The Power of Goodbye".

The big winners of the night were the Spice Girls and Madonna with two awards. Mel C, alias Sporty Spice, and Emma Bunton, known as Baby Spice, collected the trophy on behalf of the group. On receiving the award, Mel C shouted: "We've done it again". "And a big hello from the other two," she added, referring to Mel B and Victoria Adams, both of whom were pregnant and did not attend the ceremony at the Fila Forum in Milan, Italy. The Prodigy won the Best Dance award but according to their frontman, Liam Howlett, they had not done anything to deserve the award this year.

The Free Your Mind award, given to organisations helping with human rights, was given to Serbian radio station Radio B92 in Belgrade.

1999: Britney Spears was the big winner of the night winning four awards (Best Female, Best Pop, Best New Act, and Best Song for "...Baby One More Time"). She also performed during the ceremony, entertaining the crowd with a medley of her hits "...Baby One More Time" and "(You Drive Me) Crazy".

The other multiple winner was Boyzone, who nabbed two awards, for Best UK & Ireland Act and Best Album (By Request). Also honored were Backstreet Boys, for Best Group; Fatboy Slim, Best Dance; Eminem, Best Hip-Hop; The Offspring, Best Rock; Whitney Houston, Best R&B Female; and Will Smith, Best Pop Male. Best Video honors went to Blur's "Coffee & TV".

The Free Your Mind Award, which honors an individual or organization for aiding in humanitarian efforts and fighting prejudice, was given to Bono for his world peace work.

Among other performers at the show were Puff Daddy performance of "My Best Friend" backed by a full gospel choir; Iggy Pop, who stagedived into the crowd during his classic track "Lust for Life", Whitney Houston sang a medley of "Get It Back" and "My Love Is Your Love", Mariah Carey singing "Heartbreaker" and Marilyn Manson, who wore nothing but a G-string when he closed the show with a performance of "Rock Is Dead".

2000–2004

2000: The show was hosted by Fugees's Wyclef Jean, who presented a variety of stars and outfits, including one consisting of boxer shorts only, after he jumped into the crowd and had his red leather suit ripped from him.

The performance of the Spice Girls was the last before their breakup. The most elaborate appearance was probably by Jennifer Lopez, who literally landed on stage in an aeroplane. The performance was a world premiere of her new song, "Love Don't Cost a Thing", taken from her forthcoming album, J.Lo. Madonna paid tribute to fellow performer Kylie Minogue by appearing on stage in a T-shirt bearing the name "Kylie". Sacha Baron Cohen made his debut at the EMA's.

Political issues were present as well during the night, with Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter speaking against a recount of votes in the U.S. presidential election.

Robbie Williams won the award for Best Song for "Rock DJ", but he told the audience: "I am not going to say anything bad about people's choices on this one, but I think it's a terrible song and a silly song." He also referred to his roots in Stoke-on-Trent, saying: "When I was growing up I dreamt of being a pop star and I would like to thank MTV for my three houses, my five cars and my supermodel girlfriend."

2001: The show was the first entertainment broadcasts following the September 11th attacks in New York City. Gorillaz won an award for Best Song and Best Dance and as co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett walked onto stage to make a speech, Albarn sported a T-shirt with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament logo on it. Albarn, in a response to the recent invasion of Afghanistan said "So, fuck the music. Listen. See this symbol here, [pointing to the tee shirt] this the symbol for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Bombing one of the poorest countries in the world is wrong. You've got a voice and you have got to do what you can about it allright?"

Fred Durst took the stage with Wes Scantlin and the rock legend Jimmy Page to perform the classic "Thank You". Kylie Minogue performed live on stage "Can't Get You Out of My Head".

2002: One of the highlights was the offer made by host P. Diddy giving away a lush ring to the first woman to undress on stage, a lady took the stage take off her clothes and won the ring. When Moby came on stage to collect the award for Best Website he wished the best wishes to Eminem, showing that he bore no grudge after the confrontation on the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards.

Performances included "Dirrty" by Christina Aguilera, Bon Jovi with "Everyday". Robbie Williams and Whitney Houston performed their songs "Feel" and "Whatchulookinat" for the first time ever. Enrique Iglesias performed an acoustic version of his song "Maybe" and then a Rock version of his Euro hit "Love to See You Cry" done to the music of Billy Idol's "White Wedding".

2003: During the pre-show, Christina Aguilera refused to walk the red carpet if Kelly Osbourne — a guest VJ for the event — was present. Kelly responded by calling Aguilera's music "crap" and saying she was a "cow." Later, a skit was aired of Christina Aguilera throwing darts at a board decorated with a picture of Kelly Osbourne. This irked the Ozzy offspring, who voiced her disapproval when she came onstage to present an award. "If Christina Aguilera has to resort to throwing darts at my head after everything she's achieved and everything she's done, then she's a really sad, sorry person" Kelly said. "And I take it as a complete compliment." "Honey, if you can dish it out, you've got to learn how to take it back" Christina Aguilera later retorted with a voice of mock sympathy.

During Travis performance of "The Beautiful Occupation" an assembly of nude protesters marched onstage with signs that covered their naughty bits. At the end of the song, they lifted the signs.

While near at the end of performing "Baby Boy", Beyoncé and Sean Paul both were up on stage and suffered a technical difficulty while live, this went on for a near minute in which both artist and dancers exited the stage while the error went on. This also left confusion among the presenter and Christina Aguilera who walked on stage to continue hosting which ended the back tracking error. Both artists decided to retake the performance again, which led to a flawless performance. The retake would later replace re-airings of the show and would be the first show to extend time with this retake.

2004: Anastacia performed "Left Outside Alone" in front of the Colosseum to 400,000 Italian music fans. Also Britney Spears won Best Female.

2005–2009

2005 : Madonna opened the show in a giant disco ball performing "Hung Up". Borat greeted the audience by saying: "Welcome to the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest" and referring to Madonna, he said: "It was very courageous of MTV to start the show with a genuine transvestite". Gorillaz used hologram-style technology to beam three-dimensional performing cartoon characters on stage. Madonna returned to the stage to present MTV's Free Your Mind humanitarian award to Bob Geldof. "You drive me crazy, but tonight you are everyone's hero," she said. He replied: "This means much more to me than many of the other things that are given to me".

2006: The 13th annual MTV Europe Music Awards was hosted by Justin Timberlake who won Best Male and Best Pop and joked that he only won because he agreed to present the event in Copenhagen. Depeche Mode, founded in the UK in 1980, said: "A big thank you to the fans and a big thank you to MTV for playing our videos for 25 years" after winning the award for Best Group.

Despite winning the award for Best Hip-Hop, Kanye West apparently was so disappointed at not winning for Best Video that he crashed the stage when the award was being presented to Justice vs. Simian for "We Are Your Friends". In a tirade riddled with expletives, Kanye West said he should have won the prize for his video "Touch the Sky", because it "cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons." "If I don't win, the awards show loses credibility", West said.

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen entertained the audience with his English-mangling character Borat and poked fun at Madonna who was at the time trying to adopt an African child adding: "My only concern is that this singing transvestite will not be such a good father."

2007: The Foo Fighters opened the show and front man Dave Grohl hosted the VIP Glamour Pit area, interviewing celebrities live on air. Other performances on the night came from a blurry-eyed Amy Winehouse who sang her way through "Back to Black" and Tokio Hotel performed under raining water. will.i.am paired up with Nicole Scherzinger from the Pussycat Dolls to perform their duet "Baby Love". Pete Doherty surprised his critics by being on great form for the whole show in preparation for his performance with Babyshambles.

2008: Rick Astley was named Best Act Ever after an online campaign to orchestrate votes and Paul McCartney was awarded with the Ultimate Legend given by Bono and said: "These MTV awards are great and glamorous occasions, but on behalf of all the artists in this room, I will tell you something," he said. "I think we all suspect someday when all of us are gone and this great hall is no longer here, we sense, we fear our names will be forgotten. There is one person in this hall tonight whose songs we know will be here now and forever. There is one person in this hall tonight whose work is immortal. There is only one Paul McCartney."

After picking up his honour, Sir Paul said bashfully: "I don't know what to do after an introduction like that." The star settled for thanking friends, family and "my mates Ringo, George and John". "Many years ago, four little boys were born here in Liverpool and we went on to do quite well," he added. "So thanks, as I say, to all my family, to all of you for coming along, everyone in Liverpool, everyone in Britain, everyone in America — for voting in Mr Obama. I love you!"

Britney Spears was the winner of the night winning Album Of The Year and Best Act. She was not there in the show but she recorded a couple videos thanking her European fans.

The show contained numerous references to Barack Obama, most notably when Kanye West and Estelle finished their hit "American Boy" with the US President-elect's face projected onto a giant screen behind them. Jared Leto, Shannon Leto and Tomo Miličević from Thirty Seconds to Mars wore Obama T-shirts, and Jared Leto also asked the crowd to stand in honour of the Democratic senator. Amid cheers, he said: "Liverpool, lets hear it for Barack Obama." Host Katy Perry remarked: "Maybe Europe will love us again now."

Katy Perry was a high-spirited presenter, and managed 12 costumes changes during the show. She opened proceedings by straddling a gigantic cherry chapstick — a reference to the lyrics of her number one hit "I Kissed a Girl". The singer also picked up the Best New Act prize during the show.

2009: Returning for the second time as host, Katy Perry opened the show and performed a medley of the nominees for Best Song. The Jonas Brothers introduced a tribute to Michael Jackson performed by Michael's fans in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. Nick Jonas was the one who opened the band's tribute speech. He said, "This year we saw the loss of the greatest pop musician the world has ever seen. We and MTV wanted to pay tribute to the true king of pop, Michael Jackson. His unrivalled talent has shaped the musical landscape, influencing artists old and young." After Nick's tribute to Jackson, co-host Alan Green joined in the band's tribute by saying "Why are you paying tribute to Michael Jackson Nick?" Nick Jonas then said to Green and fellow co-host Mike Ingham, "Because he died in June boys." Green then said, "But we had tickets for his concerts at the O2 Arena in London, England when he died. We were really looking forward to seeing him live because we have never, ever, seen Michael Jackson play live." Surprised, Nick Jonas then threw to his brother Joe Jonas as Green and Ingham left the stage with Green muttering "Spoilsport" at Nick. In his tribute, Joe said, "The first time we heard Michael's voice was when our dad played the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There". We were amazed by the one-of-a-kind talent. The way that he and his brothers came together to entertain the world has been an obvious influence on us." Finally, it was Kevin Jonas's turn. Kevin said, "Michael Jackson influenced every listener and every future performer with a talent the world had never seen before. As a writer, as a singer, as a dancer and as a performer he was the best."

U2 and Jay Z performed "Sunday Bloody Sunday" in front of the Brandenburg Gate with Jay Z freestyling over the performance and rapped in the lyrics from Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up". Beyoncé won 3 awards, the most awards that night.

2010–2014

2010: Lady Gaga was the big winner of the night — she won while performing in The Monster Ball Tour from Budapest, Hungary, she thanked her fans via satellite after scooping the Best Female, Best Song and Best Pop trophies.

The event was hosted by Eva Longoria — who had 13 outfit changes, one of which was shaped like a huge Spanish ham — she introduced the crowd to a gang of hunks, pretending they were family. The actress joked, "I recently did some research into my ancestry and it turns out I'm 70 percent Spanish! I tracked down some of my relatives in Madrid (and) I promised that I'd bring them out on stage. A big welcome to the Longorias!".

Thirty Seconds to Mars opened the event at the pre-show featuring surprise guest Kanye West at the Puerta de Alcalá. During her acceptance speech for Best New Act, Kesha directly addressed her fans, saying: "Hopefully I can inspire you to give your finger to the cynics and fucking be yourself!". Newly married singer Katy Perry won the Best Video award for "California Gurls" and came to the event with her husband Russell Brand. This was the couple's first public appearance together as husband and wife.

Bon Jovi received the first ever Global Icon award, and then they performed their then-brand new single "What Do You Got" and two of their most successful songs: "You Give Love a Bad Name" and "It's My Life".

Shakira was awarded with the Free Your Mind Award due to her amazing efforts to give disadvantaged children the chance of having a better education.

The event also featured performances from Rihanna, Shakira, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, B.o.B, Hayley Williams, Linkin Park and many other prominent artists. The event would also be remembered for the antics of Johnny Knoxville along with The Dudesons.

2011: On March 2, 2011, it was announced that the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards would be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event took place at the city's Odyssey Arena on Sunday November 6. The awards were hosted by Selena Gomez and Cool FM DJ Stuart Robinson.

Lady Gaga was the biggest winner with four awards out of six nominations; for Biggest Fans and Best Female, as well as Best Song and Best Video for "Born This Way".

There was also, a tribute to Amy Winehouse, which was introduced by Jessie J. After a short speech from Jessie J, a video was shown featuring moments of Amy with tribute messages from fans all over the world.

2012: The 2012 MTV Europe Music Awards were held in Frankfurt, Germany. The event took place at the city's Festhalle Frankfurt on Sunday November 11, 2012. This was the fifth time that Germany and the second time that Frankfurt was the host city of the EMAs. The event was hosted by Heidi Klum and Ludacris.

The event featured performances from Muse, Taylor Swift, No Doubt, Carly Rae Jepsen, Psy, Fun, Alicia Keys, Pitbull, Rita Ora and The Killers. There was also a tribute to Whitney Houston, which was introduced by Alicia Keys.

Taylor Swift, One Direction and Justin Bieber were the big winners of the night taking home three awards each.

2013: The 2013 MTV Europe Music Awards were held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The event took place at the city's Ziggo Dome on Sunday November 10, 2013.

The event was hosted by Redfoo and featured performances from Bruno Mars, Icona Pop, Katy Perry, Kings of Leon, Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke, Iggy Azalea, The Killers and Imagine Dragons. Eminem received the Global Icon award and then he performed two of his new songs.

The show also included a controversial moment, when Miley Cyrus accepted the Best Video Award for Wrecking Ball. The singer appeared to light up a joint on stage.

2014: The 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards were held in Glasgow, Scotland. The event took place at the The SSE Hydro on Sunday November 9, 2014 and has been named the best of all of the MTV Europe Music Awards so far.

It was the second time the awards took place in Scotland and overall the fifth time United Kingdom has hosted the show since 2011 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The show was hosted by Nicki Minaj and featured performances from Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, Enrique Iglesias, Charli XCX, U2 and Alicia Keys. Ozzy Osbourne received the Global Icon award and then Slash performed the classic track from Osbourne, titled "Crazy Train", along with The Conspirators, Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro and Myles Kennedy, as a tribute to him.

One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer were the big winners of the night receiving three awards each, though both artists were unable to attend the show (One Direction were performing on the Week 5 results show of series 11 of The X Factor) and despite them sending pre-recorded videos to thank their fans, their absence was met with some boos.

2015–2019

2015: The 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards were held at the Mediolanum Forum in Milan, Italy on 25 October. This was the second time that Milan hosted the show and the third in Italy. The show was hosted by Ed Sheeran, Ruby Rose.

2016: The 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards were held at the Ahoy Rotterdam in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The show was hosted by Bebe Rexha.

Award categories

The awards are a reflection of the international and continental music scene. They are representative of geographical origin and of achievement in diverse musical genres and disciplines, indicative of the diversity and scope of these awards. Awards are amended, repealed and conceived to reflect the change of the music scene and its integral participation in social, cultural and economic circles.

Most nominations

More than 10. Pre-nomination process not included.

Multiple live performances

Three and more.

Awards by country

Key: