As reported by BBC News<\/a>, Aguilera revealed during the ceremony that she had been complimented by a local Scotsman. She stated: “He said I was a radge wee midden. Which I am told means a sexy little lady, so I will take it like that.”<\/p>\n![\"Christina](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_Christina-Aguilera-at-MTV-Europe-Music-Awards-2003.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The awards were hosted by Christina Aguilera(Image: Jeff Kravitz\/FilmMagic)<\/p>\n
As with most award shows, there were also lots of performances for the audience and those watching at home to enjoy. Beyonc\u00e9 and Sean Paul sang ‘Baby Boy’, Dido performed ‘White Flag’, and Justin Timberlake joined The Black Eyes Peas for ‘Where Is the Love?’, while host Christina Aguilera performed her hit ‘Dirrty’.<\/p>\n
The biggest winner of the night was Justin Timberlake, who won three of his five nominations, taking home gongs for Best Male, Best Pop, and Best Album for ‘Justified’. Elsewhere, Best Song went to Beyonc\u00e9 and Jay-Z for ‘Crazy in Love’, Best Female was awarded to Christina Aguilera, and the award for Best Hip-Hop was given to Eminem.<\/p>\n
At the time, Timberlake stated: “I’ve tried haggis, I’ve tried black pudding\u2014and I loved them both. I always try and sample the culture of all the new places I visit and this has certainly been memorable. Scotland is a beautiful, beautiful country and the people are so nice, it’s been amazing.”<\/p>\n
![\"Justin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_Justin-Timberlake-holds-his-trophies-for-Best-Album-Best-Male-and-Best-Pop-at-the-MTV-Europe-Music.jpeg\")
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Justin Timberlake took home the awards for Best Album, Best Male, and Best Pop(Image: JIM WATSON\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
As if the novelty of the MTV Europe Music Awards being held in Leith wasn’t enough, the ceremony itself wasn’t without its drama. This started early on in the night, when Aguilera reportedly refused to walk on the red carpet if Kelly Osbourne was there\u2014with the latter responding by describing the singer’s music as “crap” and calling her “a cow.”<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, as part of Scottish band Travis’ performance of ‘The Beautiful Occupation’, a group of nude protesters marched onstage with signs that covered their private areas before lifting them at the end of the song. There were also major technical issues during Beyonc\u00e9 and Sean Paul’s performance that meant the duo had to start over.<\/p>\n
Overall, it is thought that the 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards brought \u00a34 million into Edinburgh’s local economy and helped promote the city as a top tourist destination to a global audience. It also made for one of the city’s most memorable nights in terms of popular culture.<\/p>\n
Walking around Ocean Terminal today, it is hard to imagine that it was once the scene of all this culture and drama. The shopping centre is currently undergoing a redevelopment after being put on the market in 2025, so there is hope that it will once again return to its former glory\u2014though don’t get your hopes up about seeing Beyonc\u00e9 there anytime soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beyonc\u00e9, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were just a few of the big names. 04:30, 06 Apr 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[2543,748,1102,4884,28066,2348,73408,11653,712,16,15],"class_list":["post-875271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-beyonce","tag-britain","tag-edinburgh","tag-great-britain","tag-heritage","tag-history","tag-mtv","tag-premium","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116356399106633159","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"dailyrecord\"](\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/assets\/dailyrecord\/images\/premium-byline-dailyrecord.svg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Singers](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1_Singers-Sean-Paul-and-Beyonce-Knowles-perform-on-stage-during-the-2003-MTV-Europe-Music-Awards-at-.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_A-general-view-is-seen-prior-to-the-2003-MTV-Europe-Music-Awards-at-Ocean-Terminal-on-November-6-2.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Beyonc\u00e9](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_Beyonc-arrives-at-the-2003-MTV-Europe-Music-Awards-in-Edinburgh.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Vin](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0_Vin-Diesel-during-MTV-Europe-Music-Awards-2003.jpg\")
<\/p>\n