MTV's International Viewer's Choice awards honored the best music videos as voted for by the audiences of MTV's channels around the world. They were given out every year during the VMAs from 1989 to 2003.
History The first International Viewer's Choice Awards were given out in 1989, with viewers in Europe, Japan, and Latin America choosing their favorite videos for that year. The following year, MTV viewers in Australia and Brazil also received the chance to vote for their favorite video of 1990, and in 1991 viewers from Asia followed suit. From then on, the International Viewer's Choice awards became a fixture of the MTV Video Music Awards and were handed out every year until 2003, when MTV Australia and MTV Brasil crowned their last winners.
Winners
MTV Asia The International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Asia was given out every year from 1991 to 1998, save for 1994. As MTV's influence over Asia increased, different countries broke off from MTV Asia and got their own local MTV channels. Subsequently, each new Asian MTV channel also received a separate Viewer's Choice category, namely MTV Mandarin (China and Taiwan) in 1995, MTV India in 1996, and MTV Korea in 1999. In 1999, with a much smaller pool of member countries, this award became the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Southeast Asia.
The two biggest nominees in this category are Indus Creed from India and Dewa 19 from Indonesia, both of whom are the only artists in the award's history to receive two nominations. However, Indus Creed managed to at least score a win in 1993, while Dewa 19 went away empty-handed both times. Also, while there is no real big winner for this award, as no artist has won it more than once, Indonesia does claim the distinction of being the only country to have produced multiple winners for this category, while Thailand is the only country to have had at least one nominated artist per year of this award's existence.
Following is a list of winners of the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Asia.
Year Winner Other nominees Cui Jian — "Wild in the Snow"
Christina — "Jing Mai Klua"
Indus Creed — "Pretty Child"
No award given Denada — "Sambutlah"
Seo Taiji and Boys — "Come Back Home"
The Eraserheads — "Ang Huling El Bimbo"
Chrisye — "Kala Cinta Menggoda"
MTV Australia The International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Australia was given out from 1990 to 2003. From 1993 to 1996, however, the Australian Viewer's Choice Award was not given out since MTV Australia, the syndicated show on the Nine Network, was canceled and Australia was left without an MTV channel. This award returned in 1997, the same year in which the present-day channel MTV Australia began broadcasting, and was given out every year (except for 2000) until 2003.
The category's biggest nominees are Silverchair, who received a total of four nominations throughout the award's history. Out of their four nominations from 1997 to 2002, Silverchair won the award twice, thus also becoming the award's biggest (and only multiple) winner. Closely following are Kylie Minogue and Powderfinger with three nominations each, and Boom Crash Opera, Spiderbait, and Neil Finn with two (Finn received one nomination with Crowded House and one as a solo artist, though).
Due to the crossover potential that Australian musicians have in the U.S. market, a few artists have received nominations for both the Australian Viewer's Choice award and other general or professional awards in the same year. However, an Australian artist has never won this award and another one during the main show: Midnight Oil, for example, won the Australian Viewer's Choice in 1990 but did not succeed in their bid for Best Group Video. Meanwhile, Natalie Imbruglia succeeded in winning the Best New Artist award in 1998 but lost the Australian race to Kylie Minogue. Four years later Minogue would go through the same situation, winning Best Choreography but losing her native country's Viewer's Choice race to Holly Valance.
Following is a list of winners of the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Australia.
Year Winner Other nominees Midnight Oil — "Blue Sky Mine"
Yothu Yindi — "Treaty (Filthy Lucre Mix)"
Diesel — "Man Alive"
No award given Silverchair — "Freak"
Kylie Minogue — "Did It Again"
Silverchair — "Anthem for the Year 2000"
No award given Paul Mac — "Just the Thing"
Holly Valance — "Kiss Kiss"
Delta Goodrem — "Born to Try"
MTV Brasil The International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Brasil was given out every year from 1990 to 2003, thus becoming the longest-lasting International Viewer's Choice Award. From 1995 onwards, this award was incorporated into MTV Brasil's award ceremony, the MTV Video Music Brasil (VMB), as the Escolha da Audiência (Viewer's Choice). The award's biggest winner is the band Titãs, which earned three awards between 1990 and 2002. Three other bands are tied behind them for second place, all with two wins: Sepultura, Skank, and Charlie Brown Jr. Of these, though, Skank was the only one to achieve consecutive wins, taking home the awards for 1996 and 1997.
One of the main characteristics of the Brazilian Viewer's Choice award was that there was usually a large number of videos in the running for the award each year. The official VMA press releases, program books, and websites, though, usually only listed between four and six nominees (even omitting the eventual winner from these materials in 1991). Therefore, it is difficult to ascertain who was in fact nominated for this award between 1990 and 1995 (except perhaps for 1992), as it was not until 1996 that MTV Brasil ran video packages with all of the nominees during the award presentation at the VMBs. Still, from the information that is currently available, Os Paralamas do Sucesso and Engenheiros do Hawaii are tied as the most nominated acts for this category, each with ten nominations throughout the award's history (1990 to 2003).
Following is a list of the winners of the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Brasil.
Year Winner Other nominees Titãs — "Flores"
Sepultura — "Orgasmatron"
Nenhum de Nós — "Ao Meu Redor"
Titãs — "Será Que É Isso o Que Eu Necessito?"
Sepultura — "Territory"
Os Paralamas do Sucesso — "Uma Brasileira"
Skank — "Garota Nacional"
Skank — "É uma Partida de Futebol"
Racionais MC's — "Diário de um Detento"
Raimundos — "Mulher de Fases"
O Rappa — "A Minha Alma (A Paz Que Eu Não Quero)"
Charlie Brown Jr. — "Rubão, o Dono do Mundo"
Titãs — "Epitáfio"
Charlie Brown Jr. — "Papo Reto (Prazer É Sexo, o Resto É Negócio)"
MTV Canada The International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Canada was only given out once in 2002. Following is a list of the winners of the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Canada.
Year Winner Other nominees Nickelback — "Too Bad"
MTV China The International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV China was only given out once in 2002, more-or-less replacing the MTV Mandarin Viewer's Choice Award. Following is a list of the winners of the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV China.
Year Winner Other nominees Zheng Jun — "1/3 Dream"
MTV Europe The International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Europe was given out every year from 1989 to 1997. This award was retired in 1998 and replaced with the regional categories handed out at that year's MTV Europe Music Awards. The award's biggest winners are Roxette and George Michael, both of whom won the award twice. The biggest nominee, meanwhile, is Icelandic singer Björk, who received three nominations (but came out empty-handed each year).
In terms of countries, Great Britain is by far the one with the most nominations and wins, followed by Sweden. Coincidentally, these are the only two countries to have produced multiple winners throughout the award's history, and they would have also been the only ones to produce winners had it not been for U2's win in 1995.
Because of the high crossover potential that European acts have in the U.S. market, several artists and videos received nominations for the European Viewer's Choice as well as other categories in the main ceremony, including Video of the Year and Viewer's Choice. One curious pattern to emerge from this is that until 1996 no European artist who won a Moonman during the main show ever won the European Viewer's Choice Moonman, namely Sinéad O'Connor in 1990, Annie Lennox in 1992, and Björk in 1996. By the same token, any European Viewer's Choice winners who were up for other awards that same night would lose their other main-show races, including George Michael in both 1993 and 1996 and U2 in 1995. This pattern was only broken in 1997—the award's last year—when The Prodigy's "Breathe" won the European Viewer's Choice award as well as the one voted for by U.S. audiences, thus also becoming the only video in the show's history to win the Viewer's Choice award in addition to an international one.
Another curious fact that can be attributed to the European Viewer's Choice award is that it led to the first case ever of a video being nominated in two different years, as Björk's "Human Behaviour" received a European nomination in 1993 and then six more the following year. This situation would not occur again until 2009, when Miley Cyrus's "7 Things" received a Best Editing nomination after having been nominated for Best New Artist the year before.
Following is a list of the winners of the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Europe.
Year Winner Other nominees Roxette — "The Look"
The Creeps — "Ooh I Like It"
Roxette — "Joyride"
The Cure — "Friday I'm in Love"
George Michael — "Killer/Papa Was a Rollin' Stone"
Take That — "Babe"
U2 — "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"
George Michael — "Fastlove"
The Prodigy — "Breathe"
MTV India The International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV India was given out every year from 1996 to 2001. Prior to that, viewers in India voted for the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV Asia, even getting one of their artists, Indus Creed, chosen as the 1993 winner. In the year 2000, this award was divided into two distinct categories due to the popularity of music videos taken straight from Bollywood movies in MTV India: the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV India (Hindi Pop) and the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV India (Hindi Film).
Udit Narayan and Asha Bhosle are tied as the biggest winners in this category, each winning the award twice. In terms of nominations, meanwhile, Narayan is also the biggest nominee, having received a total of seven nominations throughout the award's history. Closely following behind him are Alka Yagnik with six nominations and Asha Bhosle with five. Following is a list of the winners of the International Viewer's Choice Award for MTV India.
Year Category Winner Other nominees N/A Colonial Cousins — "Sa Ni Dha Pa"
N/A Asha Bhosle — "O Mere Sona Re"
N/A Lata Mangeshkar and Udit Narayan — "Dil To Pagal Hai"
N/A A. R. Rahman — "Dil Se Re"
Hindi Film Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik — "Kaho Na Pyar Hai"
Hindi Pop Falguni Pathak — "Maine Payal Hai Chhankai"
Hindi Film Asha Bhosle, Sonu Nigam and Sukhwinder Singh — "Kambakth Ishq"
Hindi Pop Sultan Khan and K. S. Chithra — "Piya Basanti"
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