1990 to 2018, right on Queen Street
The MuchMusic Video Awards
For nearly three decades, the MMVAs turned a stretch of Queen Street West into an open-air concert every June — until the channel that hosted them stopped making music television altogether.
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Our broadcasting guide covers MuchMusic's 1984 launch. Its annual awards show became, for almost 30 years, one of the most visible pieces of Canadian pop culture broadcast out of Toronto.
From the Canadian Music Video Awards to the MMVAs
MuchMusic introduced its own annual awards show in 1990, first called the Canadian Music Video Awards — its inaugural Video of the Year went to the Cowboy Junkies for "Sun Comes Up (It's Tuesday Morning)." The show was renamed the MuchMusic Video Awards in 1995, and became known for its outdoor stage built right on Queen Street West outside the MuchMusic building, drawing large street crowds every June.
A rebrand, then the end
In 2016, the show was rebranded the iHeartRadio MMVAs after MuchMusic's parent company, Bell Media, struck a licensing deal with American radio giant iHeartMedia. The 2018 edition turned out to be the last: as MuchMusic scaled back and eventually dropped music programming entirely amid declining ratings, the awards simply stopped.
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