The MTV Europe Music Awards, a highly anticipated event in the world of pop music, will be taking place in Manchester for the first time.
On November 10th, the European music awards for the music network will take place at the newly-built Co-op Live arena in the city, which is expected to be the largest indoor venue in the UK upon its opening in April.
“I am confident that Manchester, with our expertise, experience, and reputation for hosting successful and world-class events, will provide an amazing platform for the best MTV EMAs yet,” said Bev Craig, leader of Manchester city council.
Established in 1994, these awards are the counterpart to the VMAs in the United States. Their scope extends beyond Europe to recognize global music. In addition to European countries, the award categories also cover the US, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Australia and New Zealand.
The UK has hosted the event seven times before, in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Belfast. Last year’s ceremony in Paris was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. In 2022, Düsseldorf hosted performances from stars including Tate McRae, Stormzy, Muse and David Guetta.
On 23 April, Co-op Live will have its grand opening with a performance by comedian Peter Kay. However, there are still some matters to be resolved regarding the arena’s operating licence, as objections have been raised by residents and ASM Global, the operator of the competing AO Arena in the city.
ASM argued that it wanted to “safeguard public safety and the prevention of public nuisance”, and opposed Co-op Live having 25 days a year where it could open for 24 hours. Mark Donnelly, chief operating officer of Oak View Group who own Co-op Live, said the company was “quite disappointed to see [ASM] are trying to put conditions on us when they operate with an unrestricted licence. We feel these are competition-based.”
Source: theguardian.com
