So I was still on the computer - which reminds me of what Grace brought to attention in the car yesterday. She said I was too attached to my computer after my simple refusal to the idea of following the whole family for a walk in the park and then proceed to the nearest fruit stall. "He's addicted to it, I tell you," dad added indignantly. Obviously, she was right. I was just too much of a snob to admit it to her but replaced it with the 'no comment' silence. Anyway, I was at my desk typing something on the keyboard until the feeling of dehydration arose and I got up to get my water bottle refilled. I saw the clock and it was nearing 1 a.m. and MTV Asia Awards 2006 will be on anytime soon.
Initially, the only thing that got my interest was that Lee Hom and Kelly Rowland are hosting it. I wanted to see how they worked together. So I cleared up my desk in my room and with the water bottle in hand, I sat in front of the TV. Honestly, I wasn't impressed at all. I think this is my first time watching the MAA and just found out that this was the 5th annual one. To the sight of screaming fans and glaring spotlights, the MAA 2006 kicked off with an opening performance by Korn. "Great! Korn! That's the best they can do..." I mumbled to myself as I watched the coloured spotlights going crazy and the band still refusing to start singing after such a long time of weird guitar sounds.Things got a little better when Lee Hom made his appearance performance and Kelly did her's.
To my dismay, Kelly and Lee Hom didn't really performed well to my expectations. Their jokes (only numbered) were stale. They weren't at all talkative or lively. Intoductions were read from a card. They can barely say anything meaningful. But with the amount of times both of them change, I could tell they had a big wardrobe backstage. It kind of got boring since they come out with a new outfit after every commercial every SINGLE time! But Lee Hom and Kelly DID look good despite their outfit changes. And Kelly's debut performance of her new single "Gotsta Go" was pretty cool.
The stage definitely did not look like they have given time into doing it. It was like a last mintue job. They created this animated movie (cartoon) called the Codehunters. I really don't see any relativity to the whole stage set-up and the awards show. There were men dressed up like robotic soldiers walking around the stage, escorting every award presenters like there was going to be another terrorist attack. The stage set-up definitely didn't themed like the Codehunters cartoons, whatever the theme might be. The whole stadium looked like it was lost in time! C'mon Bangkok, you can do better than this!
Award givers/presenters weren't very glamorous, since it the artists ranges from people from Asia like Malaysia (Ahli Fiqir and Too Phat), Singapore (Taufik Batisah), Taiwan (Vicky Zhao Wei and Vaness Wu) , Indonesia, etc. The ONLY international presenters I really knew were like The Veronicas, Simon Webbe and Same Same (very weird name, I know) the brothers from The Moffats. I'm not quite sure what's up with them. I can't remember much about the presenters but I know they weren't very as lively as they were supposed to be - cracking jokes per se wasn't in their mind at all.
The award winners themselves weren't very eloquent. The Asians ones, I mean. Not that I have anything against them or their music. It's just that, couldn't they at least make people believe thet they were prepared for it? Thank you-s were very short and sounded insincere. If you can't do that, then at leats look happy receiving it! They were all so emotionless when called on stage. They were very frivolous. The only person I thought was sincere was Se7en when he was awarded the Favourite Artist Korea and Simon Webbe when he was awarded Favourite Breakthrough Artist.
Somehow, it didn't occur to me that Asians were still using broken English until Jolin Tsai made her quick, short speech when she went to the stage to receive her The Style Awards. I guess they make an exception when it comes to the MAA. Malaysian also kind of gave a bad impression when Mawi got the Favourite Artist Malaysia and didn't show up for it and didn't even took the courtesy to record a video for his dying fans. It looks to me that Mawi's too busy running his own nonsensical reality shows that revolves around him alone! Unlike Kelly Clarkson and Ricky Martin, they took the initiative to express their gratitude and love through a recorded video towards their fans for giving them the award and explaining why they couldn't be there. Ricky Martin was busy touring and Kelly Clarkson was busy recording her new album. I thought that the MAA was just to small of an AWARD to be attending to them.To me, the night looked like it was gradually going down every second when Kelly's microphone didn't work after her second attempt to it (Lee Hom offered his to her mouth) and also when they crowd of crazy fans didn't respond to Kelly's desperate yells of "Let me hear ya make some noise!". Luckily, the crowd picked up quickly and made some soft mumble of a cheer.
However, on a birghter note, I did enjoy the performance by Asian and Western artists alike! The collaboration between Lee Ryan (who didn't get any award) and Tata Young on their rendition of 'Endless Love'. I didn't see any chemical between them at all. Daniel Powter (singing Bad Day while playing the piano) and Hoobastank gave good (and quiet) performances while Jolin Tsai and Se7en made their performaces hot and sizzling!
After all that is said, I can happily conclude that the Asian music industry has still a long way to go before the even achieve the word Internationally Prestigious! Courtesy and eloquence are still the two things that needs to be practiced. Untill then, MTV Asia Awards 2006 is not an award show worth staying up till 3.30 a.m. to watch!! Just check out the full list of winners here.
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