Really an award or not, MTV (and whomever the puppet masters at the channel were at the time) humiliated Michael Jackson with that shit. I remember that day as if it was yesterday because as a viewer watching it, you could see the audience was confused, Michael seemed confused. Britney was the only one smiling and even she was on a different wavelength from everyone else.
I swear, if they start calling that cheesy ass Dollar Store music note they presented to him an "award", I'll have to hurt somebody. And as a birthday gift? Give me a break. Michael Jackson would come all the way to MTV because they want to wish him a Happy Birthday??
As that article someone posted indicated, the aftermath of that whole event made Michael look like he was crazy. Artist of the Millennium? Where the heck would he get an idea like that?
Wasn't this smack in the middle of the "phony Sony" period?
MTV has long since lost love from me for a variety of reasons, one of which has to do with how they treated Michael Jackson after he essentially had a hand in catapulting MTV into the stratosphere in the 1980s. Them "quietly" dropping his name from the Video Vanguard Award was merely a twist of the knife. When MJ was riding high, MTV (and everyone else) was right there with him. After shit hit the fan, they all scattered like roaches when the lights are cut on.