By: Terri-Lynne Waldron
Canadian rocker, Fefe Dobson, unofficially kicked off the 2014 MMVAs Red Carpet special when she let the word “shit” slip out of her mouth. Dobson was announcing the winner for Director of the Year when the hard to pronounce names of the recipients led to her faux pas.
No big deal.
Anyone could have flubbed the names Amos LeBlanc and Ohji Inoue—who won for directing the video Run This by Thugli—especially during a live telecast where there are no do-overs.
The two-hour spectacle had some of the usual suspects performing (Hedley), but the show also included a class of freshman performers like pop/reggae Canadian band MAGIC!, edgy pop queen Lorde and alternative rockers Imagine Dragons.
While the stage allowed the acts to show off their performance prowess, it was the behind- the-scenes moments where the performers and presenters let their hair down.
Nikki Yanofsky is now a grown up pop princess who’s song, Necessary Evil, has more than one meaning for her.
“My shoes.” she revealed, when asked what she considers to be a necessary evil. But the slender-framed Montreal-native also hates working out, so she has developed a way to encourage herself to stick to her regimen. “I just picture someone really bad chasing me on the treadmill and I go faster.“
Singer/dancer Victoria Duffield may be morphing into Britney Spears before our very eyes, but without showing signs of public meltdowns and growing pains. The video for More Than Friends was shot in LA and Duffield has ambitions to take her dance/pop sound stateside in the future. “I hope so,” revealed the 19-year-old. “I am proud to be Canadian, but I definitely look forward to releasing my music internationally and let things accelerate.“
Accelerate just happens to be the name of Duffield’s latest CD. What a clever way to get in a plug for her record with her tongue firmly planted in her cheek.
Laura Vandervoort—star of the recently renewed series Bitten—came in at #17 on Maxim magazine’s Hot 100 List for 2014. While Vandervoort may have mixed feelings about being on the list, it is her fiancee who is basking in the glory. “He boasts about it, depending on where we are,” she says about her British actor beau Oliver Trevena.
MAGIC! have made inroads on both the Canadian and the US charts with the song Rude, but lead singer Nasri Atweh has a hidden talent that made him blush when confronted about it. “Okay fine, I studied dance, but I’m really a reggae guy,” he admitted playfully. “I grew up dancing and I was actually a ballroom dancer in high school. Dancing has always been a passion for me and I’m really happy that with this band, I get to incorporate it.”
All things MMVA 2014 came to an end near the midnight hour, as one of Toronto’s biggest street parties had to bid adieu for another year.
Not so fast.
What were Irish twin singers, Jedward, doing standing on the sidewalk alone in the wee hours of the morning, blocks away from the MMVAs location? Granted, the music heartthrobs had attended the award show earlier the previous night, but they suddenly seemed out of place decked out in their colourful outfits.
As purveyors of shameless self-promotion, the answer to that questions is anyone’s guess. 
For more info about the 2014 MMVAs click here.
About the author: Terri-Lynne Waldron has been a journalist for over 20 years and you can follow her on Twitter at @tw1976