I Want My MTV
MTV VMA's, Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY, August 25th, 2013. MTV was bringing the red carpet to Brooklyn in honor of Jay Z's new stadium, the Barclays Center. There was only one way in, and that was to win. Tickets were given by a lottery, but surely there were ways to get noticed and increase your chances. You could enter four lotteries for Red Carpet Fans, Pit Fans, Seat Fillers, and Special Performance Fans. The lotteries were released weekly a month leading up to the big show, and the most important thing you could do with your entry was sell your soul through writing. Explain why you bleed MTV and everything music. Being born and raised in Brooklyn didn't hurt either.
The next thing you had to do was hope that someone else you knew won a ticket, because the select lucky ones only won ONE ticket. I wrote a killer entry and was sure I'd get picked, but when my cousin got a ticket and I didn't, I started realizing how one in a million the chances were. There were thousands of people trying to get these tickets and doing all the same things I was doing. So I started tweeting and attending other 1iota events to earn more chances to win tickets. At 2am the morning before I was supposed to go to FOX Sports new show Crowd Goes Wild in hopes of being the lucky audience winner, I got an email from 1iota. Not only did I get a VMA ticket, I was Priority if I RSVP'd ASAP. I don't remember why I was up at that time, but I do remember crying and laughing of relief.
I figured since the tickets I had for later that day were for a sports show and my boyfriend didn't have a ticket to the VMA's, we might as well go. As per my usual, we were seated first row at Crowd Goes Wild and had great camera coverage. My boyfriend enjoyed the show, and at the end I thought I misheard my name when I won the VMA ticket drawing. Of course this would happen, I won twice in one day! But that didn't do me any good because you can only have one ticket in your name. When I met with the 1iota crew to claim my ticket, I explained the reason I was there was to win, but I had already gotten my email that morning. I asked if I could transfer the second ticket to my boyfriend, and they told me to email them and explain the situation and they would take care of it. I did just that as I was still standing there, and when 1iota replied later that day, they said they were not able to honor my request. When I replied throwing staff member names at them, they changed their tune and suddenly my boyfriend was also a VMA ticket holder. This was perfect, everyone got tickets to the VMA's, even my best friend and her younger sister got Red Carpet Fans tickets.
Priority fans had an earlier check-in time than General Admission fans, but we still didn't know how early we should go. Timing is everything, and it can certainly increase your chances of where you get placed for the show. We got there a few hours ahead of schedule, but truthfully it didn't matter since first we were corralled in the auditorium at BAM, and then we were walked over to the Barclays Center by the MTV crew to be placed in the pit. Everyone got all jumbled up, and for not being at the front of the original line, I had an awesome spot right by the end of the catwalk. After all the hours of standing in pain, it was worth it when I finally understood the beauty of Harry Styles when I was up close and personal as One Direction presented the Best Pop Video award to Selena Gomez for “Come & Get It”.
Miley Cyrus's highly anticipated comeback was the obvious highlight of the night, and I have to say it seemed a lot less controversial in person. It was just a raunchy teddy bear party. The prequel to Ted if you ask me. Gotta give the girl props though, she knew what she was doing. The VMA's are notorious for controversial performances, and without Miley the show wouldn't have been what it was. It was the most talked about performance for months to come, and even spawned a Halloween collection that I gladly partook in. As the anti-Kanye, I was slack during his excuse of a performance. Sorry, I will never be pro-Kanye, and if you have a problem with that you're reading the wrong blog. Though I'm a Backstreet girl for life, NYSNC's reunion during Justin Timberlake's Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award performance was a fun bout of nostalgia. It was sweet to see my cousin fangirl over JT like he still had platinum blonde ringlets.
By the time we were watching Katy Perry's performance from under the Brooklyn Bridge on the projector screen, we were beat, but my promoter friend was able to get us into the after party at 1OAK. We deliberated if it was worth waiting hours after such a long day because since we weren't celebrities, we weren't allowed to go to the party until 2am. As we ate dinner at Subway across the street from the Barclays Center, we decided we had enough fun for the day. There's always next time I suppose. In fact, I'm hoping next time is August 28th when the VMA's return to New York at the iconic Madison Square Garden. 1iota, what do you say?
