Curated playlist

MTV Europe Music Award winners

Michael JacksonMichael Jackson bought a music catalog with most of the Beatles's material in 1985. He paid 47.5 million dollars.
ColdplayColdplay's first release was 500 copies of a self-financed EP. The band later grossed a billion dollars on one tour.
U2U2, the Irish rock band, began with a note pinned to a school notice board in Dublin in 1976. Larry Mullen Jr., then a 14-year-old pupil at Mount Temple Comprehensive School, was looking for musicians for a new band. The first practice…
Britney SpearsBritney Spears sold the rights to her entire music catalogue for a reported $200 million. The buyer was the music publisher Primary Wave, and the BBC reported that the purchase closed on the 30th of December 2025. The price reflects a body…
MadonnaMadonna arrived in New York in 1978 with thirty-five dollars. It was her first plane ride and first taxi.
Lady GagaLady Gaga's name may have come from a phone typo. Producer Rob Fusari said autocorrect turned "Radio Ga Ga" into "Lady".
Taylor SwiftEvery record label in Nashville turned Taylor Swift away when she was 11. She kept going and began writing songs.
Queen (band)A DJ was told not to play Queen's song "Bohemian Rhapsody", then played it fourteen times in one weekend.
EminemEminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards while GLAAD protested outside.
Black Eyed PeasThe Black Eyed Peas topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 26 straight weeks in 2009. No artist had done it longer by then.
Kanye WestKanye West recorded "Through the Wire" with his jaw still wired shut. A 2002 car accident had shattered it.
Jay-ZNo major label would sign Jay-Z, so he sold burned CDs out of his car.
Katy PerryKaty Perry grew up in a home where the word "luck" was banned. Her pastor mother said it reminded her of Lucifer.
Whitney HoustonWhitney Houston sold more than 220 million records and carried a nickname that needed no first name: "the Voice". She was born in 1963 and died in 2012. In between, she became one of the most awarded performers in history. In 2023, Rolling…
Janet JacksonJanet Jackson was seen at the 1983 American Music Awards wearing a hoop earring with a key attached to it. She has worn variations of that earring in music videos and live shows ever since. The pair she wore between 1987 and 1990 is now on…
Drake (musician)Drake's 2006 mixtape Room for Improvement sold roughly 6,000 copies and earned him $304.04.
The White StripesThe White Stripes, a rock duo from Detroit, Michigan, gave their first concert at a bar called the Gold Dollar on Bastille Day in 1997. Meg White had started learning the drums just two months earlier, and she struggled to keep the tempo…
BeyoncéOn the 13th of December 2013, Beyoncé released a complete album on the iTunes Store with no warning and no promotion. Within six days it had sold one million digital copies, a record for any album on iTunes at the time. The artist behind…
Bruno MarsBruno Mars was five years old when he wet himself on a Honolulu stage in the middle of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love." His parents wondered whether they were making a mistake by putting him in front of crowds. He never…
Spice GirlsThe Spice Girls fired their manager the morning they won an MTV award. They then ran their own tour.
BlackpinkBlackpink became the first artist in the world to pass 100 million subscribers on YouTube, reaching that mark on the 20th of February 2026. The platform marked the occasion with a custom Red Diamond Creator Award. The group behind that…
Blink-182Blink-182, the American rock band formed in Poway, California, in 1992, owes the number in its name to a deadline it nearly ignored. When the debut album Cheshire Cat caught the attention of an Irish band also called Blink, the trio chose…
AdeleA friend posted Adele's three-song class demo on Myspace, and a record label phoned.
RihannaRobyn Rihanna Fenty, known worldwide as Rihanna, once waited in Jay-Z's office while lawyers finished drawing up a six-album contract with Def Jam Recordings. The music executive Antonio "L.A." Reid had told Jay-Z not to let the teenager…
Justin TimberlakeJustin Timberlake was 11 years old when he appeared on the television show Star Search and sang country songs under the name Justin Randall. The boy from Memphis, Tennessee would one day be dubbed the Prince of Pop. Billboard would name…
Beastie BoysThe Beastie Boys, an American hip-hop trio from New York City, once set off a worldwide run of car thefts without ever touching a car. Around the time their debut album came out, Mike D began appearing on stage and in publicity photographs…
George MichaelGeorge Michael refused to appear in his own music videos, so five supermodels lip-synced in his place.
Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney traded a trumpet for a guitar and wrote his first song on it. His father had given him the trumpet.
Oasis (band)Oasis, the rock band from Manchester, once drew applications for 2.5 million tickets to a pair of shows at Knebworth. Only 250,000 tickets were actually sold, which meant the band could in theory have filled twenty nights. Instead they…
Ed SheeranEd Sheeran bought a thirty-pound guitar two days after hearing Eric Clapton. He was eleven years old.
GorillazGorillaz performed at the Grammy Awards, though no band member ever existed. The four are cartoon characters.
Amy WinehouseAmy Winehouse won five Grammys singing by satellite from London at 3 a.m. Her visa was not processed in time.
Red Hot Chili PeppersThe Red Hot Chili Peppers played their first show on the 16th of December 1982, at the Grandia Room, a club on Hollywood Boulevard, in front of roughly 30 people. They did not yet have that name. The poster billed them as Tony Flow and the…
OutkastOutkast got booed at the 1995 Source Awards, then answered with one line.
Justin BieberScooter Braun found Justin Bieber by clicking a YouTube video by accident. He had been searching for a different singer.
Will SmithWill Smith turned down the lead role in The Matrix to make Wild Wild West. He later called that choice a mistake.
ShakiraAt age four, Shakira climbed onto a restaurant table and danced to a doumbek. It happened in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Blur (band)Blur's 1995 chart battle with Oasis became a story on national news. Both bands released singles on the same day.
Linkin ParkLinkin Park formed in 1996 in Agoura Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, and went on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide. Its founders were high school friends with a bedroom studio and no record deal. Years of…
BTSBTS debuted in 2013 from a small label outside K-pop's three dominant agencies. They practiced up to 15 hours a day.
AerosmithSteven Tyler joined Aerosmith only after refusing to play drums.
Doja CatIn August 2018, Doja Cat uploaded a homemade music video in which she fantasized about being a cow. Within a week it had passed three million views. The American rapper, singer and producer was born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, and the…
Alanis MorissetteAlanis Morissette recorded a demo cassette in August 1989 and sent it to Geffen Records. The tape has never been heard. It was stolen, along with other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989. Whatever it held is…
One DirectionOne Direction began on the 23rd of July 2010, when five young singers who had each been knocked out of a talent show were put together as a group. Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson had all auditioned…
Ariana GrandeAriana Grande organized a benefit concert after the Manchester Arena bombing. It raised $23 million.
Kendrick LamarKendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2018, the first for a piece outside classical and jazz.
BjörkBjörk had a record deal before she finished primary school. A teachers' recording of her singing aired nationally.
Snoop DoggSnoop Dogg bought Death Row Records, the label that launched his career, in February 2022. It took nearly three decades.
Depeche ModeDave Gahan won a place in Depeche Mode by singing one Bowie song. He performed "Heroes" at a local Scout hut.
Miley CyrusMiley Cyrus was eight years old when she grabbed her father's arm in a Toronto theatre. In 2001 the family lived in Toronto while Billy Ray Cyrus filmed the television series Doc. He took her to see a Mirvish production of Mamma Mia! at…