Berlin, November, the Spectacle Machine
The MTV Europe Music Awards came to Berlin in November 2009, which felt at the time like the city finally getting what it deserved—or possibly being punished, depending on your tolerance for arena pop and corporate branding. Katy Perry was at peak "I Kissed a Girl" ubiquity. Green Day had just put out 21st Century Breakdown and were in full stadium-rock messianic mode. Shakira was Shakira, which is its own category of cultural force that doesn’t require explanation or apology.
The O2 World in Friedrichshain, still relatively new and aggressively corporate-feeling, filled up for one night with the kind of spectacle that makes you feel both thrilled and slightly ashamed of yourself. I remember thinking Berlin was an odd fit for this—the city’s self-image ran more toward unlit basement clubs and unfinished walls than televised pop ceremonies. But there’s something honest about that contradiction. The EMA circus rolling in said something true about where pop culture actually lives, which is everywhere simultaneously, indifferent to local mythology.
The ceremony aired live on MTV that Thursday evening. Whatever you thought about the lineup or the format, you watched it.