“Pop” go the MTV Awards

The boy band ‘N Sync (although they are customarily called a “band,” they do not play musical instruments) dominated the MTV Video Music Awards Thursday night, winning the viewer’s choice award, best group video, best dance video and best pop video for its hit single, “Pop.” Video of the year (and video from a film), however, went to “Lady Marmalade,” the collaboration of Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, Pink and Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot. The record was made for the soundtrack to Moulin Rouge. The awards telecast was also notable for the surprise appearance of Michael Jackson. Washington Post music writer David Segal noted that Jackson appeared at the end of a live performance of “Pop” when he “spun onto the stage, looking strangely pallid and a bit like a guy who’d spent a fortune on surgery trying to look like Michael Jackson. He pirouetted a few times, then went down dramatically on a knee and was handed a soda — pop, get it? — by one of the ‘N Sync’ers. The audience, startled at the ghostly sight of the man … clapped wildly while Jackson huffed and tried to get back his wind.” The New York Post commented that Jackson “danced awkwardly, appearing like a deer caught in the headlights,” and didn’t sing a note.