MTV Europe Awards to celebrate fall of Berlin wall

AP - 2 ноября 2009 г. 16:43:19 MARY MacPHERSON LANE

This time it's Berlin calling.

The MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) are coming to the German capital with an international cast, featuring performances by U2, the Foo Fighters, Shakira and Leona Lewis.

Berlin is the only city to host the awards show twice, in 1994 and on Thursday -- a decision MTV said it made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9.

"This year's EMAs is unique in having the theme of unity in addition to what we normally do -- celebrating and playing the music," MTV International's CEO Bill Roedy told The Associated Press in an interview.

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Legendary Irish band U2 will play a short set in front of the Brandenburg Gate before the awards show is held at the O2 World stadium. Tickets to U2's performance were given away free online and were snapped up within hours.

U2's concert is not only a historical nod to the significance to the Brandenburg Gate -- which lies on the line that formerly divided East and West Berlin -- but also a reflection of the band's history. Their seventh album, 'Achtung Baby' was recorded in Berlin in 1990 and their single 'One' was inspired by the fall of the wall and written on the eve of German reunification.

The EMAs feature 13 award categories with nominees from Europe, North and South America. Traditionally, many awards go to American artists who are also popular in Europe.

Last year's EMAs were held in Liverpool, with Americans Britney Spears, Kanye West and Pink all taking home awards. There is also a Best European Band that went last year to Turkey's Emre Adym.

This year's nominees include newcomers like pop-act Lady Gaga and the English electro-pop duo La Roux, along with established acts like Green Day, Shakira and Jay-Z. Vying for Best European Act are Finnish rock group Deep Insight and Italy's Lost, who beat out the Jonas Brothers this year to win the 2009 TRL Best Band award.

Music from the Western world was embraced by youth in East Germany before and after the fall of the wall.

"Everything that looked like a lively and vivacious culture was loved by East German youth because they felt a great yearning," Frithjof Hager, a sociologist at the Free University in Berlin, told the AP. "They wanted to get out of the cruel, gray unhappiness of their country and experience the new and beautiful."

The fall of the wall had major impact on Berlin's creative scene, its mayor says.

"With the fall of the wall, Western energy and the creative and artistic impulses of the music scene in Berlin were set free," Klaus Wowereit told the AP.

The old record was set on September 25, 1987, at the now-demolished John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia with a crowd of 86,145 in attendance for the band's Joshua Tree Tour.

This year's Rose Bowl performance grossed more than $9.9 million, considerably more than the 1987 Philly show, which brought in a mere $1.5 million in ticket sales.

Among the top five single-concert attendances on record in the U.S., the top three are all U2 performances. The third-highest attendance is also from the band's current tour, at its September 29 sellout at FedExField in Landover, Maryland, with 84,754.

Pink Floyd's May 29, 1994, show at the Ohio State University football stadium is in fourth place with 75,250. The Backstreet Boys round out the top five with a sold-out show at the Georgia Dome on February 19, 2000, when 73,337 fans filled the Atlanta stadium to see the pop group's Into the Millennium Tour.

U2's Rose Bowl show excelled in gross ticket sales as well as attendance. With $9.96 million grossed, it is the second-highest-grossing single U.S. concert by a solo headliner. The concert is second only to the Three Tenors' July 20, 1996, sold-out show at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Rolling Stones make up the rest of this top-five list with a Giants Stadium concert of its own on September 15, 2005, a sold-out benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall on March 14, 2006, and an outdoor show at Chicago's Soldier Field on September 10, 2005.

TOP ATTENDANCE AT A U.S. CONCERT BY A SINGLE HEADLINER:

1. U2 - Rose Bowl; Pasadena, Calif. (October 25, 2009) Attendance: 97,014 Gross: $9,960,036

2. U2 - John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia (September 25, 1987) Attendance: 86,145 Gross: $1,593,683

3. U2 - FedExField; Landover, Md. (September 29, 2009) Attendance: 84,754 Gross: $6,718,315

4. Pink Floyd - Ohio State University Stadium; Columbus, Ohio (May 29, 1994) Attendance: 75,250 Gross: $2,406,920

5. Backstreet Boys - Georgia Dome, Atlanta (February 19, 2000) Attendance: 73,337 Gross: $2,787,098

TOP GROSS AT A U.S. CONCERT BY A SINGLE HEADLINER:

1. The Three Tenors - Giants Stadium; East Rutherford, N.J. (July 20, 1996) Gross: $13,404,350 Attendance: 58,491 

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