David Bowie will be one of the judges (again) for the 16th Annual Webby Awards, sometimes called the Oscars of the Internet. The New York Times confirms it as the “Internet’s highest honor”.
(David Bowie won a Webby in 2007. See lower down for his acceptance speech that year.)
David Bowie at the Webby Awards in 2007
Judges also include Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and Instagram founder Kevin Systrom and the co-inventor of the Internet, Vinton Cerf.
The Webbys are probably best known for the ceremony’s five word limit on acceptance speeches.
Famous speeches include Al Gore’s speech, “Please don’t recount this vote.” When introducing him, Vint Cerf also used the five-word limit, “We all invented the Internet.”
Facebook’s was, “I’m just here for Bowie”.
Last year, the acceptance speech by Vogue’s Anna Wintour was “Sometimes geeks can be chic.”
My favorite acceptance speech, though, was by David Bowie when he won a lifetime achievement Webby in 2007.
David Bowie at the Webbys 2007 with his lifetime achievement award
Bowie sent up the idea of the five word speech like this:
“I only get five words?
S***, that was five.
Four more there.
That’s three.
Two.”
Then he left the stage.
The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences will publicize the winners on May 1, choosing from Webby nominees that include Spotify, Funny or Die and Pinterest.
The awards will be presented at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom on Monday May 21. Go to webbyawards.com for live streaming from 5:30 PM Eastern, but you’re unlikely to see Bowie.
P.S.
Can’t resist adding Will Ferrell’s speech, which ignored the five-word limit:
“Thanks for this award. I will put it in my house next to my instructional poetry textbooks. Thank you”.
David Bowie Starman
Well deserved recognition. Among other things, David is credited with being the first to offer songs for digital download (Telling Lies). What else do you expect from the man who attempted to do a duet with Mick Jagger via satellite in 1985?
He was really forward-thinking.
Bowie has had such an influence on music, image, song construction – for so many years – that it is probably impossible to calculate. A Hero – just for all days.
Thanks for commenting, Jeff. “A Hero – just for all days”
David Bowie’s influence is so broad and so pervasive that it is indisputable.
n 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single “Fame” and the hit album Young Americans, which the singer characterised as “plastic soul”. The sound constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording the minimalist album Low (1977)—the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno over the next two years. This so-called “Berlin Trilogy” albums all reached the UK top five and received lasting critical praise.
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