LONDON — The 30th annual MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) will take place on Sunday, November 10 Co-op Live Arena in the British city of Manchester. Hosted by Rita Orathe show will with performances by LE SSERAFIM, Peso Pluma, Tyla, Benson Boone, RAYE, Shawn Mendes, Teddy Swims, The Warning and Pet shop guyswhich will host the first ever MTV EMA Popping Pioneers Award.
The 2024 EMAs will be broadcast live on MTV’s global network in nearly 150 countries and can also be viewed on Pluto TV and Paramount+. It promises to be a “great global music festival,” says Bruce Gillmerthe event’s executive producer and president of music and chief content officer for music at MTV parent company Paramount+.
After last year’s EMAs, which were supposed to take place in Paris, was cancelled Due to global security concerns related to the war between Israel and Hamas, this year’s 30th edition will be all the more special, Gillmer says. “There’s a lot of pent-up excitement about the show’s return,” he says Billboard in an exclusive interview.
These will be the first EMAs since 2022. How relieved are you to be back after two years?
The whole team, and there are quite a few, a few hundred, they’re all excited. We have an incredibly close group here. It’s like a family and some of us haven’t seen each other in person in two years. So I’d say the excitement is at a fever pitch. There are many happy, smiling faces. And we are very happy to be in Manchester – a city with such deep musical roots and acts that are crucial to the MTV brand, such as Oasis or Joy Division. It’s always great to be in a musical city and this one is really deep. Plus we have an incredible brand new venue, Co-op Live, one of the few arenas in the world built specifically for music. So taking the year off has brought a lot of excitement, a different creative (treatment) and a great brand new location – so we’re winning.
There is always a danger that annual events and awards ceremonies will lose their momentum if they skip a year. How have you looked at mitigating that risk?
I think we’re lucky with the MTV brand and that we have a handful of the biggest and most important events within Paramount. What we have found for us is even more passion and desire to join us on this journey. Whether that is on the talent side, on the side of the music industry, our directors and lighting designers or the suppliers we use. We are blessed. We haven’t lost any momentum. I think we’ve hit our stride, if anything.
MTV’s biggest music awards show is traditionally the VMAs. How does the EMAs compare to their American siblings, and do you approach the two shows differently?
There is definitely some crossover as they are both global shows and most if not all of the talent featured in both shows has a global reach. But I would say we’re going to dig deeper into the global approach to the EMAs. This year we have Tyla from Africa. We have Peso Pluma from Mexico. We have great British artists like Raye and great American talent, for sure, but also K-pop artists with LE SSERAFIM and Latin artists. It feels like it’s probably more balanced globally, although I wouldn’t have you believe that the VMAs weren’t also global, because they were. But the EMAs have some extra juice. Some additional elements that really convey the global message. Both shows are very important and both have a global reach. But the EMAs are purpose-built to be a global show, while the VMAs feel global because the talent within them has a global reach.
What are some of the biggest challenges of hosting a major awards show in 2024?
Most of the challenge lies in economics. Everything is getting more expensive every day. Labor is more expensive. Materials are more expensive. We have talent coming in from all over the world that is being influenced in a very significant way. Unfortunately, the whole world is feeling the downturn in the economy, so that is our biggest hurdle. It’s not a cheap show and we don’t have the benefit of increasing our budget year after year. So we need to produce a show that costs more with the same level of entertainment (as previous years) and with significantly less (money). But like I said, our team is incredible.
In 2024 it will be thirty years since the EMAs existed. What do you think has been the key to the event’s enduring popularity?
That first year, 1994, the entire show was live from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. You had Prince and Aerosmith (performing). Tom Jones Hosting. George Michael (executive) “Freedom.” And in the years that followed, the world’s biggest artists have graced our stage: Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Miley, Eminem, David Bowie, Bon Jovi, and so on. We are very proud of the 30th anniversary and the fact that we have been to about 25 cities in Europe. We’ve had some fantastic hosts: Heidi Klum, Sacha Baron Cohen twice, Katy Perry twice, Ed Sheeran, Selena Gomez. We have always had a great mix of top talent from Europe, Britain and the US. The show is simply stronger than ever and has a greater reach than ever in a digital age. If we look at the video categories that are voted on, it is hundreds of millions of votes. The show is connecting with more fans worldwide than ever and is in great health after all these years.
In the thirty years since the first EMAs in 1994, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of awards ceremonies televised worldwide. How do you stand out in such a competitive market, and do you believe awards shows are still relevant to audiences today?
I feel like some of them are and some of them aren’t. (Paramount is) fortunate to be home to the Grammys, the VMAs and the EMAs. We have these shows that really matter and that appeal to both the audience and the artists. They feel super relevant to me and in recent years these shows have gotten bigger. There were a few years where they all lost significant audiences. But in the last few years the trajectory has been increasing. The Grammys, VMAs and the EMAs have all come and gone in recent years. The core shows what really matters and really connects with the audience, the fans, the talent is doing well. But when you get into that environment, you get a lot of other people coming through, seeing the success and suddenly the events landscape becomes busy. (And) they’re not all doing it right. The ones that don’t have much of a history or reason to exist struggle I guess.
Rita Ora, presenter of this year’s EMAs, previously recorded a song with Liam Payne: ‘For You (Fifty Shades Freed)’ from 2018. Will you pay tribute to the former One Direction star, who passed away last month, in the show after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires?
Clearly, Liam was an artist who had an incredibly close bond with our core audience and even with some of our staff and our host, Rita Ora. We have to be somewhat sensitive to the timing of it. It’s all very new. So we don’t want to do anything outside the borders. But there will certainly be an acknowledgment of his passing. It’s fitting considering his connection with the audience and what he means to the brand.