Last night’s NewNowNext Awards, broadcast on the gay and lesbian-themed Logo network, focused on pop’s freshest faces and put a twist on the standard awards show structure.
Rather than showcase artists already topping the pop charts, NewNowNext tries to live up to its name by featuring artists poised on the brink of superstardom. This year’s lineup was geared towards a growing fascination with Europop, and included headliner acts like Swedish pop star Robyn and Danish electropop newcomer Oh Land.
Other features of last night’s broadcast included pop-punk rockers Panic! At The Disco and dance phenomenon Wynter Gordon.
The NewNowNext show, now in its fourth year, prides itself on staying ahead of the pop-culture curve and boasts such impressive “discoveries” as Lady Gaga – a virtual unknown at the time of her television debut on the show back in 2008.
Dave Mace, the senior vice president of Logo’s original programming division, described Monday’s performers as “energetic, upbeat and cutting edge,” a group that would “appeal to the majority of Logo viewers.”
“We’re looking for the next thing that’s about to blow up,” Mace told reporters from the Los Angeles Times.
After taking the stage and performing for her largely LGBT fan base, Robyn hopes her music will find an even more diverse audience “Having a huge support from the gay scene on a more underground level, that’s one thing. But I didn’t know if I’d be able to make that transition into a commercial setting,” she explained.
If Mace and the pop-psychic minds behind NewNowNext are right, both Robyn and Oh Land are “on the cusp of something new” – maybe even something that will catapult them, together with the Europop revival and its prominent LGBT fan base, into the mainstream.
