American rock band, Foo Fighters were given the inaugural ‘Global Icon Awards’ on Sunday at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Barclays Centre, New York. This is the first time this global icon category has been introduced in the MTV VMA.
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Announcing the pre-planned award, MTV in its release wrote, ”
But before that, at the 2021 MTV VMAs, Grohl and the Foos will become literally planetary by receiving the Global Icon Award. The honor is set to make its debut VMA appearance after being a prestigious MTV EMA staple for years. That’s as real as it gets.”
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The ‘Global Icon Awards’ was presented after a performance by the band following which, band member Dave Gohl accepted the award on the band’s behalf. Gohl while receiving the award said, “We’ve been a band for 26 years, so it feels pretty good.” He then went on to thank a number of figures from MTV’s history, pulled half-facetiously from a “list” he said the group had prepared but were clearly just improvising
Gohl concluded his speech by saying, “We’ll see you in 26 years.”
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As far as the band’s performance goes, they performed a three-song medley at the award show. They began their medley with 1999 hit ‘Learn to Fly’ with drummer Taylor Hawkins paying tribute to late Rolling Stones timekeeper Charlie Watts with a ‘Charlie RIP’ message on his bass drum.
After that, the band performed their recent Billboard Rock and Alternative Airplay No. 1 song “Shame Shame,” and then moved to a run through signature 1997 single “Everlong.”
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At the time of their performance at the MTV VMA 2021, a split-screen montage was simultaneously displaying clips from dozens of Foo Fighters videos from the course of their career, both behind them and underneath them, projected onto the actual stage giving a legend feel.