2010 MTV Europe Music Awards
award ceremony
The 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards took place on 7 November 2010 at Caja Mágica in Madrid, Spain. The awards ceremony was presented by Eva Longoria and Justin Bieber was the official MTV EMA 2010 digital host. Nominations were announced on 20 September. Lady Gaga topped the list of nominations with ten, followed by Katy Perry with five, Eminem with four and Thirty Seconds to Mars & Muse with three apiece.
Thirty Seconds to Mars took the stage at the pre-show featuring surprise guest Kanye West at the Alcalá Gate. Shakira opened the show with "Loca", featuring Dizzee Rascal, and the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, "Waka Waka". Performances by Katy Perry and Linkin Park were featured live from outdoor stage at Madrid's Alcalá Gate.
Nominations
Winners are in bold text.
Regional nominations
Winners are in bold text.
Performances
Digital show
Katy Perry — "California Gurls" / "I Kissed a Girl" / "Peacock" / "Hot n Cold" / "Teenage Dream"
Thirty Seconds to Mars — "Closer to the Edge"
Pre show
Thirty Seconds to Mars (featuring Kanye West) — "Hurricane / Power"
Main show
Shakira (featuring Dizzee Rascal) — "Loca" / "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)"
Kings of Leon — "Radioactive"
Katy Perry — "Firework"
Rihanna — "Only Girl (In the World)"
Kid Rock — "Born Free"
Linkin Park — "Waiting for the End"
B.o.B (featuring Hayley Williams) — "Airplanes"
Miley Cyrus — "Who Owns My Heart"
Plan B — "She Said"
Kesha — "Tik Tok"
Bon Jovi — "What Do You Got?" / "You Give Love a Bad Name" / "It's My Life"
Appearances
Tim Kash — Red carpet host
Taylor Momsen — presented Best New Act
DJ Pauly D and Snooki — presented Best Pop
Johnny Knoxville — presented Best Alternative
Kelly Brook and David Bisbal — presented Best Video
Emily Osment — presented Best Male
Slash — presented Best Live Act
The Dudesons — presented Best Hip-Hop
Alaska and Joaquín Reyes — presented Best Spanish Act
Thirty Seconds to Mars — presented Free Your Mind
Miley Cyrus — presented Best Rock
Dizzee Rascal — presented Best Female
The Jackass Cast — presented Best Song
Notable incidents
During her acceptance speech for Best New Artist, Kesha directly addressed her fans, saying: "Hopefully I can inspire you to give your finger to the cynics and fucking be yourself!"
Further controversy was raised by the cast of Jackass; when presenting the award, Jason "Wee-Man" Acuña removed his trousers to expose his fully nude lower body, displaying his genitals.
“2010 MTV Europe Music Awards” enters the record as award ceremony. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Europe, Music and Awards can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“2010 MTV Europe Music Awards” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Europe, Music and Awards provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 13, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q334889. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2010.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “2010 MTV Europe Music Awards”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards primary sources, 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards archive and Europe research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “2010 MTV Europe Music Awards”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “2010 MTV Europe Music Awards” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.