1996 MTV Video Music Awards
| 1996 MTV Video Music Awards | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Date | Wednesday, September 4, 1996 |
| Location | Radio City Music Hall, New York, New York |
| Country | United States |
| Hosted by | Dennis Miller |
| Television/Radio coverage | |
| Network | MTV |
The 1996 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 4, 1996, honoring the best music videos from June 16, 1995, to June 14, 1996. The show was hosted by Dennis Miller at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
The show centered on The Smashing Pumpkins, who led the pack that night with nine nominations. Having both lost their touring keyboardist days before this appearance to a heroin overdose and kicked longtime, original drummer Jimmy Chamberlin out of the band as a result of this incident, the band opened the show as a three-piece, performing an awe-inspiring, emotional version of "Tonight, Tonight." What is more, the Pumpkins ended up winning seven of the awards they were up for: "Tonight, Tonight" earned six wins out of its eight nominations, including Video of the Year, thus making it the night's most nominated and biggest winning video; while their video for "1979" earned the one Moonman it was nominated for: Best Alternative Video.
The next biggest nominee and winner that night was Canadian singer Alanis Morissette, who won three out of her six nominations for her video "Ironic." Tying with her in terms of nominations was Icelandic singer Björk, who also received six; however, her video for "It's Oh So Quiet" only took home one Moonman for Best Choreography. Closely following with five nominations each were Coolio, the Foo Fighters, and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Out of these, though, only the former two ended up taking home some Moonmen for their videos. Coolio won three, as "Gangsta's Paradise" won two out of its three nominations, and "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" won one out of its two nominations, while the Foo Fighters' "Big Me" took home one Moonman for Best Group Video. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, meanwhile, went home empty-handed.
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