Music fans cast their votes on YouTube to choose six winners of the inaugural 2013 YouTube Music Awards by voting for their favorite videos and pushing these nominees to the top as award winners.
The awards presentation, which was streamed live on Nov. 3, presented music fans with a wide assortment of live performances from some of the biggest music stars who became global hits on YouTube in the past year, including Arcade Fire, Avicii, CDZA, Earl Sweatshirt, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Lindsey Stirling, M.I.A., Tyler, The Creator and Walk off the Earth, according to a Nov. 3 post on the YouTube Official Blog.
The winners and their categories are:
Video of the Year: Girls’ Generation – “I Got A Boy,” awarded for highest numbers of views, shares, likes and fan comments.
Artist of the Year: Eminem, awarded for highest numbers of views, shares, likes, fan comments and subscribers.
Response of the Year: Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix – “Radioactive,” awarded for best fan remixes, covers or parodies, as well as highest numbers of views, shares, likes and fan comments.
YouTube Phenomenon: Taylor Swift – “I Knew You Were Trouble,” recognizing the YouTube video that elicited the largest number of fan responses.
YouTube Breakthrough: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, recognizing the biggest breakout act on YouTube with the highest growth in views and subscribers since September 2012.
Innovation of the Year: DeStorm – “See Me Standing,” recognizing the most unique concepts and creators in YouTube music videos since September 2012.
Nominations for the awards opened Oct. 21 and fans were able to vote until just before the awards event began, according to Google. Fans could vote by sharing the videos of the nominees on Google+, Twitter and Facebook. The live event was held in New York City at Pier 36, preceded by four related music events that were also streamed from around the world on YouTube from Seoul, Moscow, London and Rio, according to Google.
Nominees in the Video of the Year category included Demi Lovato for “Heart Attack;” Girls’ Generation for “I Got A Boy;” Justin Bieber, featuring Nicki Minaj, for “Beauty And A Beat;” and Selena Gomez for “Come & Get It.”
Artist of the Year nominees included Eminem, Epic Rap Battles of History, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Nicki Minaj, One Direction, PSY, Rihanna and Taylor Swift.
The inaugural awards show was unveiled by Google in early October to honor the artists and songs that dedicated YouTube viewers and fans have turned into hits over the past year. Since being named, the nominees have been sharing official music videos, covers, parodies, concerts, interviews and fan videos on YouTube.
YouTube often gets involved in cultural events to bring together fans of music, fashion, culture and more.
In September, YouTube streamed live online coverage of the 2013 Mercedes Benz Fashion Week events in New York City, bringing the latest fashions and trends to the world. Included in the YouTube coverage were more than 60 live shows from BCBG, Rachel Zoe, Betsey Johnson, Jenny Packham and more on the IMG Fashion YouTube channel, as well as stylish channel live stream shows on getting made up to the hilt with expert help from fashion and make-up experts such as Louise Goldin and Jeremy Scott.
Earlier in August, YouTube celebrated geeks with its first-ever “Geek Week” event that highlighted content, including “Game of Thrones,” “The Big Bang Theory,” Harry Potter and “The Avengers.” The Geek Week celebration highlighted the global community on YouTube that loves superheroes, comics, gaming, science and science fiction.
In May 2013, YouTube turned eight years old, having launched in May 2005 as a video-sharing Website where people could post their creative works and watch to see if they gained any footholds. YouTube’s popularity has been huge, with the site receiving more than 100 hours of uploaded video from creators each minute. All of that video content is being created by millions of partners and contributors, some of whom have become very popular through the growing site.
In March 2013, YouTube announced that it is providing video content for more than 1 billion viewers per month. The popular video-sharing site has helped launch the careers of a slew of entertainers and made celebrities out of ordinary citizens, thanks to viral videos.