This year, I’d thought I’ll do things a little differently. Everyone is writing about the main show but after watching the Korean drama “She Was Pretty”, I thought, hey, why not give the spotlight to the behind the scenes folks to makes all the magic happen like how they fussed over their 20th anniversary edition of the fictitious “The Most” magazine.

Check out the massive scale of a production that is an EMAs!

MAIN SHOW PRODUCTION

• The 2015 MTV EMAs set has been designed by celebrated German-American stage and set designer Florian Wieder – the creative mastermind behind the MTV EMAs set designs in Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Liverpool, Amsterdam and Glasgow. He has also previously designed for the MTV Movie Awards and the MTV VMAs.
• This year’s set is inspired by taking MTV back to its roots – creating a massive TV set on-stage as the show will take the audience into different ‘worlds’.
• The entire set on the main stage is made of LED screens with a ‘tongue-like’ stage extension from the main stage, creating a floating effect into the arena.
• 10,000 CDs have been flown in to be used as a performance backdrop.
• Production equipment include:
  • 4 truckloads of video screens
  • 10 truckloads of lighting to help ignite the stage and red carpet – all of which will be housed in a 70 metre long glass marquee.
  • 2 miles of gaffer tape used this year
  • 500 radios for staff
  • 2.5km of barrier
  • 6 enormous generator units will be used to power the show.
• Everything has been transported through 50 technical trucks.
• MTV EMAs Site Managers walk approximately 15 miles each day in the run up to the show

HAIR & MAKE UP

• The 40-person MTV EMAs professional makeup artist team has spent over 500 hours with internationally renowned make-up artist and MTV EMAs guru, Glam Squad’s Debbie Dannell.
• Together, they have brought an arsenal of make-up tools, including 5 kilos of glitter, 300 sets of lashes, 60 assorted moustaches, 300 cans of hairspray and 300 assorted styling products.
• The team includes a specialist graffiti artist – The Urbanist – who creates beautiful body art, treating the human body as a living canvas.
• And here are some added hair-raising facts: there is a backstage wiggery to house over 1000 over-the-top wigs, 300 hairpieces and 100 poly heads, with the onsite help of 22 expert hairdressers, led by Pauline Simmons, now in her 17th year at the MTV EMAs. This is the highest number of wigs ever housed at the EMAs backstage!

COSTUMES

• Despite the scale of the event, an intimate team of 14 wardrobe staff have worked around the clock to produce more than 150 costumes for dancers, presenters and artists.
• On top of reams of fabric, the team has used over 72 metres of ribbon and 1,000 metres of silicon.
• 24-hour fabric sublimation printing was employed to create one fabulous outfit.

DANCERS

• This year’s troupe of 35 dancers was selected by MTV EMAs veteran Aicha McKenzie of AMCK from over 700 potentials who flew to Italy to audition. And the troupe will be choreographed by Nathan Clarke.

DIGITAL

• MTV will be connecting with fans through more social platforms than ever before, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope, and Vine. More than 20 social influencers from countries including Italy, the U.K., the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, and Brazil will be on the scene to share the EMA experience with their combined 9+ million followers.
• The MTV EMAs social handles have millions of fans around the globe.
• The 2015 MTV EMA app is available on iOS and Android in 11 languages, while the 2015 MTV EMA website is available in 18 languages across 34 regions.
• It takes over 200,000 lines of code to power the official website mtvema.com. The MTV Digital team has spent over 2500 man hours testing mtvema.com and the MTV EMA apps. Over 1200 mobile application builds were created to deliver 3 releases on App Store and Google Play Store.

CASTING CALLS

• Over 1,600 fans came along to the 2015 MTV EMAs open castings across three days, so they can be part of the live audience, with 700 fans invited to scream their hearts out at the red carpet. Notable auditions include:
  • ‘Edo Sheerano’ – An Italian version of Ed Sheeran sporting a casual suit, bright trainers and a full head of fiery, ginger hair. The look would not be complete without an entourage of his own fans who screamed through his performance, showering him relentlessly with kisses and gifts, while taking selfies and snaps.
  • I Heart o R-r-r-r-remix – Quite a few remixes of popular songs turned up at casting. From “We want to come to the E. E. M. A’s!” sung to the tune of YMCA, to “What E.M.A’s?” performed to the beat of “What Do You Mean?” by Justin Bieber. A favourite was a rendition of Adele’s “Someone Like You” by a young guy called McRobert, who re-wrote the entire song about his wish to attend the EMA… They all got through!
  • For the Girls – A group of girls told a mother they were going shopping, but got stuck in a line, so they had to admit the truth to the mother who was waiting for them. The mother went to the casting call and ended up auditioning with the girls for fun, while the father was waiting in the car having no idea where everyone went!
  • And the winners are… – 3 teenage girls who traveled 262 km to put on their own rehearsed sketch for MTV. Dressed flamboyantly in feather scarves and glitter-adorned sachets, guest-presenting their dream award – ‘Tickets to the EMAs in Milan’. It ended with one of them handing over their handmade MTV EMA-branded envelope to MTV’s head casting manager, with their names listed as the winners!

CREW CATERING

• 2015 MTV EMAs performers, presenters and crew will enjoy over 40,000 delicious meals and snacks from specialist showbiz caterers Eat Your Hearts Out using locally sourced, high quality ingredients.
• 4 truckloads of catering equipment.
• 500 eggs and 150kg of sugar used daily.

TRAVEL

• 28 hotels booked wholly by MTV for the EMAs
• Nearly 6,500 total room nights
• Over 1,900 hotel rooms on show night alone
• 1,074 international travelers coming to the city

All that, and months more of effort that goes unseen and unmentioned to create the 3 hour party that is the 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards. How mind boggling is that??

Anyway, in cased you missed the show, here’s the full list of winners:

• BEST SONG: Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar – Bad Blood
• BEST POP: One Direction
• BEST FEMALE: Rihanna
• BEST MALE: Justin Bieber
• BEST LIVE ACT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH GUITAR HERO LIVE ®: Ed Sheeran
• BEST NEW ACT: Shawn Mendes
• BEST VIDEO: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Downtown
• BEST ROCK: Coldplay
• BEST ALTERNATIVE: Lana Del Rey
• BEST HIP HOP: Nicki Minaj
• BEST ELECTRONIC: Martin Garrix
• BEST PUSH: Shawn Mendes
• BEST COLLABORATION: Justin Bieber, Skrillex, Diplo – Where Are You Now?
• BIGGEST FANS: Justin Bieber
• BEST LOOK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TEZENIS UNDERWEAR: Justin Bieber
• BEST WORLD STAGE: Ed Sheeran V Festival, Hylands Park, UK 2014
• [NEW CATEGORY] VIDEO VISIONARY AWARD: Duran Duran
• WORLDWIDE ACT: North America | Canada – Justin Bieber
• WORLDWIDE ACT: LATIN America | Brazil – Anitta
• WORLDWIDE ACT: Europe | Italy – Marco Mengoni
• WORLDWIDE ACT: Africa / India | Africa – Diamond Platnumz
• WORLDWIDE ACT: Asia | China – Jane Zhang
• WORLDWIDE ACT: Australia / New Zealand | Australia – 5 Seconds of Summer

Finally, can’t wait for the 2016 edition of the MTV Europe Music Awards that will take place at Rotterdam, Netherlands!