7 worst awards show mix ups
La La Land mistakenly given Best Picture Oscar
The Oscars were overshadowed this year as a mix up led to the wrong film being mistakenly given the Best Picture award. Producers from La La Land were halfway through their acceptance speeches when they realised that Moonlight should have received the award instead. The card for Best Actress, given to Emma Stone for her performance in the musical had somehow ended up being handed over to the announcers.
They did not realise until it was too late that there had been a mix-up amidst the pressure of live, global television. Luckily, La La Land’s producer Jordan Horowitz was gracious as he handed over the coveted trophy, saying, “I’m going to be really proud to hand this to my friends from Moonlight.” Moonlight is a critically acclaimed film about a young black man raised in Miami, though the controversy has overshadowed their win.
Adele cut off at the Brits
National treasure and international singing superstar Adele was given rough treatment at the Brit Awards in 2012. As the televised awards show was overrunning, James Corden was ordered to cut short her speech accepting the award for Best Album. Proving that live TV can lead to the most hilarious moments, she responded with a middle finger to the producers that ordered her off stage.
Michael Jackson accepting an award he just invented
It was a nice touch for Britney Spears to give Michael Jackson a birthday cake for his special day to a standing ovation at the 2002 MTV music awards. She said offhandedly that she thought he was the artist of the millenium. However, in an amusing twist, he thought that this was a real award and launched a grand acceptance speech, with ‘a couple of people I have to thank who made this possible’. Those people included God, his mother, Diana Ross, Quincy Jones, David Blaine and all his fans.
The wrong Miss Universe
Rarely do beauty pageants make news but in 2015 the Miss Universe final had one of the most notorious mix ups. He named Miss Columbia as the winner and celebrated, cried, was given her new sash and flowers and jumped for joy for many minutes. He stood there sheepishly before announcing “I have to apologise. The first runner up is Columbia.” to screams from the crowd and a very awkward removal of the initial winner’s tiara and title.
Kanye disagrees
This mishap was nothing to do with fumbling announcers but a publicity stunt and impulsive move by Kanye West. When Taylor Swift won best female video for her song You Belong With Me at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009, he disagreed with the result. Rather than venting online like most celebrities, he stormed the stage, took her microphone and told everyone watching that the award should have gone to Beyonce instead.
Hacking of the 1975
This was the one time that nothing actually went wrong, but everyone thought it had. During The 1975’s performance of The Sound at the Brit Awards in 2017, text flashed up on screen that seemed to criticise the band. They included ‘punch-your-tv obnoxious’ and ‘ridiculous’. Lots of people on Twitter thought that they had been hacked. Thankfully, fans clarified the situation and realised that the messages were broadcast deliberately.The titles were also featured in the music video for the song where they used the titles to show that they didn’t care about their haters.
The Olly Murs nightmare
When the singer replaced seasoned presenter and professional Dermot O’Leary in the shaken up X Factor, people were concerned about his ability to cope with the pressure. Rightfully so, because he miscounted the judges votes and rather than sending it to a public vote in the event of a time, told contestant Monica that she was going home. Co-host Caroline Flack jumped in abruptly and corrected the mistake. However, the damage had been done and even though Monica was eventually sent home through the public vote, conspiracy theorists thought that this was proof that the results were fixed.