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Beck, Jamiroquai big winners at MTV Music Awards
September 5, 1997
Web posted at: 2:48 p.m. EDT (1848 GMT)NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Rolling Stones, Sting and Bruce Springsteen were at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday night; the latter two even performed. But it was a couple of relative newcomers to the music world who danced off with almost half of the awards handed out there for the 14th Annual MTV Video Music Awards.
Beck, with his difficult-to-pigeonhole music, took home five of the strange silver-astronaut trophies. His awards included best direction, best art direction and best choreography in a video for "The New Pollution."
His video "Devil's Haircut" earned him the best editing award and best male video. It was the second year in a row he won best male video, an award which seemed to leave him perplexed. "I keep getting this male thing. I don't know what's up with that," he said.
Jamiroquai scores with 'Virtual Insanity'
The British ensemble Jamiroquai was the second most-recognized artist at the ceremony. They won four honors, including best video of the year for the ingeniously crafted "Virtual Insanity," in which singer Jay Kay performed in a room where the floors, walls and furniture all moved simultaneously.
The video, which was partially replicated in a live performance at the awards ceremony, also earned the band awards for best cinematography and best special effects, and MTV's "Breakthrough Video" award.
Stars remember Diana
The celebrity turnout made it virtually inevitable that the recent death of Princess Diana would be noted. Elton John, in particular, announced a charitable donation in her name; he will sing at her funeral on Saturday.
"I'd like to take a moment to tell everybody that MTV around the world will be donating a portion of the proceeds from tonight's event to the Princess Diana Memorial Fund," he said.
And, as they have since the car crash Sunday that took Diana's life, celebrities spoke out against the tabloids -- and those who support them.
"It's time for us to take responsibility for our own insatiable need to run after gossip and scandals and lies and rumors," Madonna said.
"Until we change our behavior, tragedies like this will continue to occur," she said, referring to the role paparazzi may have played in the fatal accident.
Fallen artists also commemorated
The music world also had its share of losses to memorialize in words and song. Rapper and rhythm-and-blues singer Faith Evans were joined by Sting on their award- winning song "I'll Be Missing You," which they revised from Sting's "Every Breath You Take" as a tribute to the late Notorious B.I.G.
"The song don't make me feel sad; the song makes me feel good. And I can just see him smiling, you know?" said Puff Daddy.
Evans said the song was a way for her to express her feelings about the artist's death.
"There's a lot of different emotions going on, with the loss and having to be an artist and the mother of his son," she said. "I'm kind of like, finding a way to turn it into a healing thing."
The rapper -- his real name was Christopher Wallace -- was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in March. Wallace's mother accepted his award for best rap video, "Hypnotize."
MTV's trademark irreverence also surfaced
Not every speech was serious during the awards, which have been marked for their artists' irreverence. Host Chris Rock dissed the Spice Girls, Madonna dissed the paparazzi and the censor developed a "bleep button" blister -- all in hour one of the three-hour extravaganza.
Jewel won best female video and No Doubt won best group video. No Doubt's lead singer, Gwen Stefani, received her award by blurting out the f-word. Aerosmith won for rock video, Sublime won for alternative video and Fiona Apple won for new artist.
In the end, it was music that brought everybody together, including Bruce Springsteen and the Wallflowers. Springsteen, once dubbed "the next Bob Dylan," swapped vocals with Bob's son Jakob on the Wallflowers' "One Headlight."
The night closed with a bizarre performance by Marilyn Manson, who sported a leather corset and caused Rock to rethink his relationship with God.
"Run to church right now!" Rock told the crowd.
Correspondent Mark Scheerer contributed to this report.
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