1989 MTV Video Music Awards
| 1989 MTV Video Music Awards | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Date | Wednesday, September 6, 1989 |
| Location | Universal Amphitheatre |
| Country | United States |
| Hosted by | Arsenio Hall |
| Official website | www |
| Television/Radio coverage | |
| Network | MTV |
The 1989 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 6, 1989, honoring the best music videos from April 2, 1988, to June 1, 1989. The show was hosted by Arsenio Hall at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.
This year's show featured the first major restructuring that was done to the Video Music Awards, as four new "genre" categories (Best Heavy Metal Video, Best Rap Video, Best Dance Video, and Best Post-Modern Video) were added alongside the International Viewer's Choice awards. Also, the award for Best Concept Video was retired this year, and the eligibility cutoff date was moved two months down from April to June, making this a 14-month eligibility year.
In terms of the awards themselves, meanwhile, Madonna and Paula Abdul were the night's biggest with four awards each, while rock group Living Colour was the second biggest winner, taking home three moonmen that night. On the other hand, Michael Jackson was the most nominated artist of 1989, receiving nine nominations for two of his videos: six for "Leave Me Alone" and three for "Smooth Criminal." Despite all the nominations, though, Jackson only took home one award for Best Special Effects.
The award for Video of the Year, meanwhile, went to Neil Young's controversial video for "This Note's for You", making this the first time since The Cars' win in 1984 that an act takes home the main award without winning any other one. Unlike The Cars, though, Young's video did not have any other nominations that night except for Viewer's Choice, which until 1994 had exactly the same nominees as Video of the Year. The Viewer's Choice award, however, went to another video that also stirred up controversy: Madonna's "Like a Prayer."
The ceremony is notable for comedian Andrew Dice Clay's stand-up routine that included adult versions of Mother Goose nursery rhymes, leading MTV executives to ban him from ever appearing on the network again.
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