The head of MTV says selecting Brooklyn’s Barclays Center to host the hot Video Music Awards show this year was a no-brainer.
MTV President Stephen Friedman told the Post yesterday that the cable-network giant’s teen-friendly audience is well aware that Brooklyn now is on the “national stage” thanks in part to Barclays Center, so it makes perfect sense to host the 2013 VMAs there during the arena’s “inaugural season.”
The network first approached Barclays Center honchos about hosting the show months before the 18,200-seat home of the Brooklyn Nets opened last September. MTV announced yesterday that music-industry favorites would be getting their VMA Moonman statues Aug. 25 at the arena.
“The vibrancy and cultural prowess that’s now coming out of Brooklyn – whether it’s the music scene, sports scene or food scene—you just feel it,” Friedman said.
“And our audience, in particular, really sees it on the national stage. So we felt this was the year to not only to bring the show back home to New York, but to bring it to Brooklyn.”
The live event will mark the show’s 30th anniversary — and is a major score for the Brooklyn arena.
Radio City Music Hall – the site of the first VMAs in 1984 — and Madison Square Garden were also considered.
“We always try to reinvent the show, and this year putting it in a different location is what made Barclays Center stand out,” Friedman said.
And while invitations have yet to go out to music-industry favorites, expect Beyoncé and husband Jay-Z, who owns a small interest in the arena and Nets, to be at the top of the list.
“We will certainly invite them,” Friedman said. “We would love to have them there. We are having conversations with everyone, but of course, of course! They are always invited.”
“Right now, we are talking to all the global superstars who we typically engage with around the show, and I have to say that everyone’s excited we are bringing it to Brooklyn,” he said.
Barclays Center CEO Brett Yormark said MTV “came to us because, like many, they realize Brooklyn is quickly becoming a major destination in the entertainment industry.”
“They toured the arena and loved it, and the feedback that they received from artists who have played here was nothing but spectacular,” he said.
“For us, this is one of the biggest award shows in the country, so it’s an honor that they want to call Brooklyn home.”
Friedman said he attended a Barclays Center show last month by English folk-rock group Mumford & Sons and left feeling “it’s a spectacular venue that really stands out.”
“There is a lot of local pride with the young people who work there,” Friedman said. “You don’t get that at a lot of other venues.”
He also said there’s big in-house perk for bringing the show to Brooklyn: most of MTV’s staff lives there.
“That is a happy byproduct of us doing it there,” he said. “Our staff is of the much younger demographic, and a huge number live all over Brooklyn. They are particularly happy with the choice.”