The inaugural Social Star Awards was held at the Marina Bay Sands MasterCard Grand Theatre on 23 May 2013 at 9 pm.

I’ve been to a few award shows and I must say that while it started the latest (9 pm!!), it was also one of the more fun and irreverent shows. Also I think there was a sadist theme that night based on all the videos they kept screening before and after the nominees and awards announcement.

The truth is, despite how glamorous it looks, award shows can be a very draggy affair and it is quite boring to sit through the thing but with the Social Star Awards, it didn’t feel like it was very draggy at all. It felt like one big party/concert actually.

Apart from the technical glitches and mess ups here and there, I’d say that it’s an amazing production. As with all live shows, there’s bound to be something that doesn’t work/fails and given that this is the first time ever it has been done in Singapore and in this format, I’d give the entire crew working on the Social Star Awards a 10 for effort and 9.5 for result.

I guess the only gripe I have about the Social Star Awards is the choice of the hosts. Jessica Alba and Jeremy Piven are good in their own right but put them together as hosts, it was so awkward. I don’t see no chemistry at all between them and as both of them are first-timers to the Singapore setting, they didn’t really know what would work and what wouldn’t. I’m not sure if it was obvious to the viewers on YouTube but it was sure as hell very obvious in the hall even though I’m sitting at the nosebleeds in level 3.

I’d rather have Dominic Lau continue hosting the Awards (since he was already like hosting every single event that I’ve been to this week) and have the YouTubers like Ryan Higa, PewDiePie, Chester See, etc join him at various points of the show as co-hosts. Point being, get a celebrity who is a proper host the next time. [Like Ryan Seacrest, Ant & Dec, Jimmy Fallon, Ellen DeGeneres… you know… that kind.]

Anyway, the first highlight of the night for me was the performance by Aerosmith (duh!) and the special appearance by Hikakin who beat boxed the entire way through the performance of “Walk This Way”. So damn cool!

The Wrecking Crew was also so damn cool!! Watching it on video is one thing. Those guys are so spot on and you really have to watch them live to fully appreciate their precision and timing.

Marquese Scott was also amazing!! That name might not ring a bell but you’ve probably watched him dance on YouTube before. He is that “dubstep dance guy”. The way he moves, it is like he doesn’t really have bones at all or something. So fluid, so good! Remember the name y’all: Marquese Scott.

And finally, Psy. He was like the biggest highlight of the show for everyone. His performance of “Gentleman” and “Gangnam Style” was just so damn high energy and amazing. (Just so you know, even the usually zero reaction at any concerts @PopCultureBoy was bopping along to both songs. It is THAT infectious.)

I love how everyone was jumping/dancing along and attempting to sing along in Korean even though they probably have absolutely no idea what those words even mean. Haha. Totally amazing. I do recommend watching him perform live at least once in your life. It is worth it.

Overall, I really did have a lot of fun at the Social Star Awards and I’m definitely looking forward to the one next year!

Here are other photos from the Social Star Awards: