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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 16 august 2017

AP Exclusive: MTV, record

label debate ‘Despacito’ video

By MESFIN FEKADU Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s remix, helping it soar from
AP Music Writer hit song has become You- the Top 40 to the Top 10,
NEW YORK (AP) — MTV says Tube’s most viewed clip of and later No.1. The remix
the uber-popular video for all-time, surpassing 3 billion version does not have an
“Despacito” didn’t earn views. official video.
a nomination at its Video “We’re proud to work with “Despacito” missed out
Music Awards because it MTV to expose new audi- on VMA nominations such
wasn’t submitted for con- ences to our artists’ music as video of the year, best
This April 27, 2017, file photo shows singers Luis Fonsi, left, and sideration, but Universal and we would welcome collaboration, best editing
Daddy Yankee during the Latin Billboard Awards in Coral Ga-
bles, Fla. Music Latin Entertainment MTV’s decision to recog- and other more. In an inter-
Associated Press says MTV didn’t ask the la- nize Spanish-language view with the AP, Fonsi said
bel to submit the video until videos on its main chan- he didn’t notice the video
last week — two weeks af- nel and the Music Video wasn’t nominated for the
ter the network announced Awards program,” the la- VMAs and he’s happy with
its VMA nominees. bel said. the song’s massive success.
“Despacito” has not aired The VMAs will air live on “Awards are very important
on MTV or MTV2, but it is Aug. 27. but what bigger award
being played on MTV Tres, MTV, which mainly airs real- (is there) than having the
the company’s Latin chan- ity shows like “Teen Mom” most watched video in the
nel. As for the VMAs, MTV and “Catfish” throughout world in history? It doesn’t
said “the ‘Despacito’ video the day, rarely plays music really get any bigger than
was not submitted for con- videos on its main channel. that,” Fonsi said, referring to
sideration” in a statement MTV2, MTV Classic and oth- the song’s YouTube record.
to The Associated Press on er spin-offs air videos regu- “Hopefully it’ll win some
Monday. larly. awards down the line,
“Until last week, MTV hadn’t “Despacito” is the rare down the road, but I think I
solicited UMLE to submit the Spanish track that has be- got the biggest one so far,
video for consideration,” a come a massive success straight from the people.”
spokesperson for the re- in the U.S. and around the Nominees for the top VMA
cord label said in a state- world. The hit song, which prize, video of the year,
ment to the AP after it pub- recently became the first include Kendrick Lamar’s
lished a story on the reason video to hit 3 billion views “Humble,” Bruno Mars’
for “Despacito’s” exclusion on YouTube, has become “24K Magic,” the Week-
from the awards show. the most streamed track of nd’s “Reminder,” Alessia
It is unclear why the net- all-time and is spending its Cara’s “Scars to Your Beau-
work solicited the label for 14th week at No.1 on the tiful,” and DJ Khaled and
a submission after the nom- Billboard Hot 100 chart. Rihanna’s “Wild Thoughts,”
inations had already been It is the first mostly Span- which was released in
announced. MTV did not ish song to top the Hot 100 June, a month before MTV
immediately respond to since Los del Rio’s “Ma- announced its nominees.
a message seeking com- carena” in 1996 and has The 2017 VMAs will air live
ment Monday afternoon. sold more than 7.7 million from the Forum in Ingle-
MTV announced its VMA tracks based on digital wood, California. Lamar is
nominees on July 25. The sales, audio streaming and the top nominee with eight,
network said Monday that video streaming. while the Weeknd and Katy
“Despacito” — the song The song, released in Janu- Perry — who is hosting the
not the video — will be ac- ary, got a boost when Jus- show — each earned five
knowledged at the VMAs tin Bieber appeared on its nominations.q
as a nominee in its song
of summer category. That
category and its nominees
will be officially announced
the week of Aug. 21.
The label said it hopes MTV
will air the video at some
point.
“UMLE is surprised and hap-
py to learn that MTV plans
to recognize ‘Despacito’
in the VMA’s ‘Song of Sum-
mer’ category,” the label
said. “We hope the nomi-
nation will lead to MTV air-
ing the full video on their
main channels.”
MTV did not explain why
it has not played “Despa-
cito” on its main channel
when asked by the AP. Luis