The MTV Europe Music Awards 2023 are canceled – Paris cannot guarantee the safety of the participants due to the war in Gaza

Taylor Swift at the 2023 MTV Europe Music Awards.
American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift swept the 2023 MTV Europe Music Awards, winning in nine categories. The event was organized in Frankfurt.

The gala has never been canceled before. From Finland, a candidate for the award is, among others, Käärijä.

The MTV Europe Music Awards have been held continuously since 1994. Now it has to be canceled for the first time. According to the news agency Reuters, the organizer Paramount entertainment giant states that it cannot guarantee the safety of the participants at the venue in Paris. France has raised its terrorism threat level to the highest possible level.

Although the MTV music gala is not organized this time, the public vote for Europe’s best music and music makers is still ongoing and the winners are going to be awarded.

Käärijä will perform at Ilosaarirock 2023.
Käärijä is nominated for the best Nordic artist award at the Europe Music Awards.

The reason for the cancellation of the gala organized in Paris is the threat caused by the war between Hamas and Israel.

– Thousands of lives have been lost. This is a moment of sadness, the announcement states.

On the BBC’s Instagram feed, the statement’s neutral terms \”conflict\” and \”events\” provoke outrage. Commentators are calling for Israel’s actions to be called genocide. Some also remind of the suffering and death of innocent Israelis in the attack by Hamas.

The events are commonly referred to as the Gaza war. You can read the latest information about the war here.

Paramount has announced that it will move the MTV Europe Music Awards to November 2024.