Eminem scoops YouTube award

YouTube’s first-ever music awards thrilled and spilled, with Eminem named artist of the year, though most winners were lesser- known acts who featured in an eclectic show filled with stunts.

Sunday’s webcast was kicked off by indie rockers Arcade Fire performing their new song ‘Afterlife’ in a live video performance featuring a chorus of young girl singers in Pier 36, a sprawling indoor events space in New York.

Up next was a crying Lady Gaga, minus her trademark peroxide blonde hair and make-up, dressed in a tomboyish baseball cap marked ‘Dope’, for a first performance of an eponymous song that she delivered in a haunting, melancholic tone while playing the piano.