The World Music Awards: What?

noah | November 10, 2008 10:45 am

The Monaco-based racket of nebulous music honors known as the World Music Awards gave out its 2008 slate of prizes over the weekend. I thought that actually seeing the list of winners would make me a bit clearer on the purpose of the show, but I was gravely mistaken. What can you say about a ceremony that’s marked by the following oddities: Norway getting its own award in its honor, while Sweden is ignored; the R & B category is split into “Best R & B Act” and “Best R & B Male”; and Kid Rock apparently is such a crossover smash, he’s able to nab the “Best Pop Male” and “Best Pop/Rock Male” awards. And that doesn’t even get into the World Music Awards-certified notion that Akon is the Internet’s biggest musician. God help us all, right? Full list of winners after the jump, in case you want to try and make sense of things.

Diamond Award: Ringo Starr Outstanding Contribution To The Arts: Beyonce (AKA the “we made this up so she would show up” award.) Special Achievement Award: Mariah Carey Outstanding Contribution To The Music Industry: LA Reid World’s Best-Selling Recording Act: Coldplay Best Pop Female: Leona Lewis Best Pop Male: Kid Rock (I have to break here to let you know that Michael Jackson was up for this award. Seriously.) Best Pop/Rock Female: Amy Winehouse Best Pop/Rock Male: Kid Rock Best Rock Act: Coldplay Best R & B Artist: Alicia Keys Best R & B Male: Chris Brown (Their distinction. I swear.) Best New R & B Artist: Estelle Best New Artist: Leona Lewis Best Hip-Hop/Rap Artist: Lil Wayne Best DJ: Laurent Wolf Biggest Internet Artist: Akon (So much to answer for, Internet.) Latin: Enrique Iglesias Africa: Akon America: Madonna Australia: Delta Goodrem Benelux: Kate Ryan Canada: Celine Dion China: Jay Chou France: Christophe Mae Germany: Die Artze (Not Tokio Hotel?!) Great Britain: Coldplay Ireland: The Script Italy: Jovanotti Japan: The Exile Middle East: Nancy Ajram Nigeria: Tuface Norway: Madcon Russia: Philipp Kirkorov Spain: Enrique Iglesias

A quick spin through the wire photos from the event shows that, yes, most of the people who were nabbed awards were in attendance. Except Coldplay, perhaps because they know that in these times, the conservationist approach is key when it comes to Ridiculously Nebulous Promotional Expenses.

World Music Awards 2008 [Official site]

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