MTV Japan have announced global multi-platinum rock artists Tokio Hotel, Korean supergroups Girls Generation and SHINee, UK rock band One Night Only and local favourites and Sendai-based Monkey Majik as additional performers at the MTV Video Music Aid Japan.
They join Lady Gaga, Exile and Kana Nishino at the tenth annual MTV Video Music Awards Japan (VMAJ), which is being staged as a live international music television event to benefit the Japanese Red Cross.
If you aren’t lucky enough to get a ticket, don’t panic, the glossy pop extravaganza will be broadcast live from Chiba’s Makuhari Messe to more than 30 million households on MTV Japan, MTV Korea, MTV SEA and MTV China on Saturday June 25, at 18:00pm.
A special one-hour version of the event will air on MTV channels worldwide to over 550 million homes as an instalment of MTV’s weekly live music series, MTV World Stage.
Hosted by Japanese pop sensation AKB48, the staging of the show will be the culmination of MTV Japan’s Music of Hope campaign, the channel’s response to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The project was designed to “inspire and rally young people to contribute time or funds to recovery and rebuilding efforts,” Music of Hope features inspirational music videos, live performances, artist interviews, exclusive news and stories about artists and young people who have been impacted by the disaster.
Nominations for this years awards were led by Japanese artists Ikimonogakari, Miliyah Kato and Kana Nishino, K-pop sensation Girls Generation, and international superstars Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Eminem, Justin Bieber and Linkin Park each earning three nominations.
Japanese artists AI and Yui join Avril Lavigne, Bruno Mars, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Kanye West as double nominees.
Guest celebrities attending reads like a who’s who of Japanese pop-culture, including AI, AK-69, Thelma Aoyama, Beni, MiChi, Naoto Inti Raymi, Yuya Matsushita, w-inds. and Marie, Shion, Sun Wei and Kozue from “Shibuhara Girls”, MTV’s hit Japanese reality drama.
Info: www.mtvjapan.com
