Virtual Band Wins Big at German Online Music Awards
December 7, 2001
The virtual band Gorillaz won two prizes at the German Online Music Awards Thursday night.
Gorillaz took the award for 'Best Online Innovation' and the Gorillaz website was chosen as 'Best Designed Music Page'. In addition, Gorillaz also appear to have the most creative fans, since they took the prize for 'Best Fan Page'.
The people behind Gorillaz are Damon Albarn, the lead singer and song writer of Blur, and Jamie Hewlett, who invented the 'Tank Girl' comics. The band has released numerous singles and one album, which got as high as number three in the British album charts earlier this year.
Users voted on who should win
Internet users cast their votes starting in early November. They judged different categories including 'Best Artist Page', 'Best Label Page' and 'Best Online Live Performance'.
Users chose Iron Maiden's website as the 'Best Artist Page'. The hard-rock and metal band beat other pop music giants like The Beatles and U2 in this category.
The prize for the best live online performance went to the US band R.E.M. for a concert it gave in Cologne on May 12, 2001. R.E.M. had agreed to webcast the concert live so that users all over the world were able to enjoy it simultaneously.
Michael Stipe of R.E.M. said winning the German Online Music Award in this category was the cherry on top of a concert that he remembered as being just great.
Only one German band among the winners
The only German band that won anything at the German Online Music Awards was 'Die Fantastischen Vier'. The four hip-hoppers from the southern German city of Stuttgart took the prize for 'Best Music DVD'.
'Die Fantastischen Vier' (the fantastic four) won the prize for their DVD 'Unplugged'. It contains a concert the band recorded for MTV's unplugged series last year. But instead of taping it in a studio, 'Die Fantastischen Vier' decided to go underground, literally: they recorded their unplugged session in a natural cave in Germany's Sauerland region.
Online awards a virtual event
Thursday's awards ceremony was a multi-media event. It was held in Cologne, Germany and was broadcast live by the country's pop music TV channel VIVA. In addition, there was a live webcast for audiences all over the world.