Awardsfever: Five things that should not happen at an awards show

The MTV Brrr Music Awards held recently in Karachi amused, shocked and at times even horrified the audience. Although the blunders that happened were too many to list, we’ve shortlisted a few that stood out.

By M.R.S.

When getting music acts to perform ‘live’ (which in the case of the MTV Music Awards meant a mixture of performing on DAT and, along with the vocals, and very few instruments plugged in to perform), make sure that the microphones are both switched on and operating — and not after the acts have gone on stage.

Both Noori and Josh, in their individual performances had to spend an additional five to ten minutes trying to find help in making the microphones work. Where Rup of Josh looked visibly irked, and mentioned on stage that “I am not responsible for any technical errors”, while also trying to lighten the situation up, “Hey, Noori! Didn’t you guys do a soundcheck before this?” it made the management of the stage seem very unprofessional.

If you have to give an award to a music act, at least make sure their name appears in the nominations.

Zeb and Haniya won the Best Live Act award. Unfortunately, their name was NOT mentioned when the nominees for the award were being announced — which were Sajid and Zeeshan, Co-VEN, Seige and the Mekaal Hasan Band (MHB).

However, it must be mentioned here that Zeb and Haniya (not the MHB) were included in the nominations announced at the press conference held before the awards but their name, for some obscure reason, was excluded (and MHB included instead) when airing the nominations on television and during the award function, forcing one to question whether Zeb and Haniya were nominated or not? And if the organisers intended to give them the award for this category, they should have at least made sure that their name was included when announcing the nominations for it at the awards function.

If you are making nominations out for a certain category, make sure they’re current, or whoever wins will point that out indirectly.

Fariha Parwez won the Best Female award and when on-stage to collect it she thanked the organisers for giving her the award and also mentioned that she didn’t expect to win it since her last album came out in…2005!

Hadiqa Kiyani along with Masooma were nominated as well. Hadiqa hasn’t released an album since her collaboration with Aamir Zaki on Rough Cut (though she is due to release one soon) which was released in 2007. Interestingly her nomination car ried the music of one of the songs from Rough Cut, Iss Bar Milo in the background. Zeb and Haniya should have been nominated in this category since they’re the only female duo who have been generating waves in the industry since last year. And although I am not a fan of Annie Princess, but even her nomination in this would have made this category more current and therefore, relevant to the times.

When you invite foreign artistes to perform, you don’t especially have to introduce three new categories for them to win an award in a local award function.

Juggy D, H-Dhami and Veronica, all artistes from the Richie Rich production company were invited to perform at the awards function. Juggy D bagged the Best International Bhangra Sensation (even though his last album came out in 2004), Veronica bagged the same in the ‘female’ category and H-Dhami (who, according to his website, has yet to release an official track and is working on releasing three in the summer) received the Best international bhangra sensation award.

A note to the organisers: you don’t have to give an award to artistes you invite to perform. You can give one collective ‘something’ in appreciation but having done the above, who have yet to make their mark in the local industry or most importantly, do some work in it, who do you suggest you’ll be giving the above-mentioned awards to next year?

Fashion has no business being promoted in a music awards show.

There was only one fashion segment in the entire awards show and that too showed the James Abidi collection, and the designer herself happened to be the official event organiser of the show herself. It was shameless self-promotion that, not only being out-of-place, ended up putting a bad taste in one’s mouth. To top it off, those who gave the awards to the presenters as well as the hostess, Nadya Hussain, were also dressed in James Abidi. In fact, every time the hosts left the stage there was an outfit change with Nadya making a reference to their wardrobe every time she came on stage. It was definitely OTT (over-the-top).

1. Josh
2. Juggy D
3. Veronica