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Miami, FL/New York, NY, August 29, 2004 – Miami was sizzling as celebrities made a splash on the red carpet and on stage at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards. The biggest bash of the summer turned out a virtual who's who in the worlds of music, TV, film, sports, and politics. OutKast and Jay-Z topped the list of winners with four Moon Men each. Repeat air dates for the broadcast will be available on mtv.com. The 2004 MTV Video Music Awards aired live at 8pm on August 29^th at the AmericanAirlines Arena.

Christina Aguilera and Nelly

Winning four Moon Men, OutKast nabbed honors for "Hey Ya," clinching Best Video of the Year, Best Hip Hop Video, Best Special Effects in a Video, and Best Art Direction in a Video. Jay-Z won four Moon Men for "99 Problems," scoring Best Rap Video, Best Direction in a Video, Best Editing in a Video, and Best Cinematography in a Video. No Doubt won two Moon Men for "It's My Life," nabbing Best Group Video and Best Pop Video. At press time, the Viewer's Choice Award and the MTV2 Award were yet to be determined.

The night started with celebrities arriving by yacht for the first time ever in awards show history. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony had their official "coming out" as a married couple as they arrived by yacht and paraded the red carpet. Celebrities also sailing up to the red carpet included Usher, Beastie Boys, Hilary & Haley Duff, Lil' Jon, Jessica Simpson & Nick Lachey, Dave Chappelle, P.Diddy & Naomi Campbell, and Big Boi & Ludacris.

Inside the AmericanAirlines Arena, the festivities started off with a bang as Jennifer Lopez welcomed the VMAs to Miami and introduced the first artist of the night. Stepping out of the rain, Usher sang his hit "Confessions" and then went into an energetic performance of "Yeah" as he was surrounded by people descending from the rafters and flying and jumping to the beat working the nearly 13,000 audience members into a frenzy! For the first time ever, the audience, made up of 1,000 local Miamians, played a huge part of the show interacting during special moments. The audience continued to cheer as Will Smith, flew onto the stage to introduce the Miami Heat's newest member Shaquille O'Neal. The crowd waved around Miami Heat towels as there was a dramatic, digital reveal of a 40 foot tall O'Neal. And that was just the beginning of the memorable moments of the night.

Usher

It was a big night of audience participation! The audience laughed as Matthew Lillard crowd surfed on his little toy boat as he presented Best Rap with Hilary Duff. Shakira, bringing a whole lotta of Latin flavor to the show, introduced the next performers. Keeping the energy up, the show continued with a rock in the round performance with a battle of the bands on three different stages with Jet, Hoobastank, and Yellowcard. Jet performed "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" with gyrating go-go dancers; Hoobastank performed "The Reason"; and Yellowcard performed "Ocean Avenue."

Throughout the show, Jon Stewart in taped pieces revealed the nominees of Viewer's Choice. One of the taped pieces featured a very vocal Reverend Al Sharpton. Another memorable moment had Omarion, while presenting with Eva Mendes, breaking into an a cappella rendition of the nominees of Best Female Video. Next, Kanye West did a stirring interpretation of "All Falls Down" with a full gospel ensemble transforming the venue into a church scene. During his performance, surprise guest Chaka Khan shocked the crowd as she took the stage and she joined West to sing a duet of their songs "Through the Fire" and "Through the Wire." The performance was more brilliant as the audience held up electric candles.

The first daughters of the next President of the United States, Vanessa and Alexandra Kerry in Miami with Jenna and Barbara Bush, taped earlier in New York, joined Carson Daly to announce that MTV, working through the Red Cross, would be making a significant contribution to aid the people of northern Florida, which was recently hit by the devastating Hurricane Charley. The Kerry and Bush daughters also encouraged the crowd to get out and vote in the upcoming November elections.

Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder

The show was also filled with tons of comedic antics as Dave Chappelle took the stage doing a hysterical bit of stand up comedy and had the audience roaring with laughter! Hip-hop pounding beats filled the arena, as Lil' Jon, Petey Pablo, Ying Yang Twins, and Terror Squad featuring Fat Joe joined together for a medley of their songs "Get Low," "Salt Shaker," "Freek-A-Leek," and "Lean Back," respectively. This medley had the crowd jumping out of their seats and singing along.

Surprise guests Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen then introduced Jessica Simpson. Simpson, suspended in the air on a swing wrapped with tulle and flowers, moved the audience with her ballad "With You" and then went on stage to perform her re-interpretation of "Angel." As has become standard at concert, the entire audience on the floor waved around cell phones in the air. Following the performance D12 came on stage with Benji & Joel from Good Charlotte to present the winner for "Best Soundtrack to a Video Game."

Next, the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne crowd surfed in a bubble to join Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon to announce the winner for Best Hip Hop Video. The crowd was energized with a dueling duet between Nelly and Christina Aguilera. Aguilera started off with a beautiful piano piece with Nelly interrupting her to begin their duet. Nelly and Aguilera performed "Tilt Ya Head Back" for the first time EVER. This single is from the Nelly not yet released double album "Sweat" and "Suit."

Jessica Simpson

P.Diddy and Mase urged the audience to "Vote or Die" as part of his Citizen Change campaign. And then on cue, fifty dancers joined them on stage to announce Best Dance Video.

Introduced by LL Cool J and Christina Milian, songstress Alicia Keys sang a beautiful rendition of "If I Ain't Got You," with legendary Stevie Wonder who joined her on his classic "Higher Ground." In addition, Lenny Kravitz on guitar joined Keys during her performance.

The always fashionable Paris Hilton and Nick Lachey gave out the Best Group Video award. Following them, the "Pre-Show by the Shore" performer Ashlee Simpson was joined by pro skateboarder Tony Hawk who turned all the stages into a huge skate park and further impressed the crowd by flawlessly executing a 540◦, before handing out the Best New Artist in a Video award.

The Beastie Boys were surprised when a "heckler" dressed as Bigfoot started shouting at them from the audience. Next, Mandy Moore and Marilyn Manson introduced The Polyphonic Spree, a twenty-five piece choir, garbed in colorful robes sang an outrageous rendition of "Hold Me Now." The audience got involved too, carrying multi-colored, flowing ribbons above the audiences' heads to make for a fabulous rainbow of all kinds of shades and hues.

Dave Chappelle then returned to roast Jay-Z and his retirement. Then JoJo and U.S. Olympic Gold medalists Kaitlin Sandeno, Carly Patterson, Kerri Walsh & Misty May joined together to present the winner for "Viewer's Choice."

Making her first awards show appearance since the birth of her daughter Apple, the ravishing Gwyneth Paltrow took the stage to present the moonman for Video of the Year to Outkast.

Rock legend John Mellencamp along with Evanescence's Amy Lee introduced Outkast, one of the top award winners of the night, to close the show with an inspirational "Choose or Lose" themed performance. Their performance began with Andre 3000 doing a solo performance of "Prototype." The stage then transforms into a convention with streamers and 1,000 colorful red, white and blue balloons falling from above, "Outkast" sang special remixes of "The Way You Move," Hey Ya!," and "Ghetto Music" with new lyrics calling on all Americans to vote in the upcoming Presidential elections.

The star-studded list of presenters included Jennifer Lopez, Will Smith, USA Olympic Gold Medalists Kaitlin Sandeno, Carly Patterson, Kerri Walsh, & Misty May, Paris Hilton, Shaquille O'Neal, Shakira, Tony Hawk, Lenny Kravitz, P. Diddy, Jon Stewart, Ashlee Simpson, LL Cool J, Ludacris, Jimmy Fallon, Naomi Campbell, Marilyn Manson, Matthew Lillard, Hilary Duff, Evanescence's Amy Lee, Queen Latifah, Mase, John Mellencamp, Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, Vanessa and Alexandra Kerry, Jenna and Barbara Bush, Nick Lachey, Omarion, Beastie Boys, Mandy Moore, Good Charlotte's Benji and Joel, D12, Owen Wilson, Christina Milian, Xzibit, Eva Mendes, Missy Elliott, and Gwen Stefani.

2004 MTV Video Music Awards Winners

General Categories

Professional Categories

The "2004 MTV Video Music Awards Pre-Show By the Shore" will be executive-produced by Dave Sirulnick and Ocean MacAdams. Deborah Savo is the producer. Joe DeMaio is the director.

The "2004 MTV Video Music Awards" will be available to a potential viewing audience of over 1 billion people via MTV's 42 channels reaching 412 million households around the world as well as through syndication, and its convergent and original online programming will reach the entire online nation, via MTV's 34 Web sites around the world.

The official sponsors of the "2004 MTV Video Music Awards" are Pepsi, Taco Bell, Pantene, Saturn, Dodge, Revlon, Gap, HP and Virgin Mobile USA.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is the official business advisor of the "2004 MTV Video Music Awards."

For complete information on the 2004 VMAs, please visit www.mtv.com.

MTV Networks owns and operates the cable television programming services MTV: Music Television, MTV2, mtvU, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, TV Land, VH1, CMT: Country Music Television, and Spike TV, as well as The Digital Suite from MTV Networks, a package of thirteen digital services, all of which are trademarks of MTV Networks. MTV Networks also operates and offers joint ventures, licensing agreements and syndication deals whereby its programming can be seen worldwide.

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