Whitney Houston Named 2012 MTV EMA Global Icon



Frankfurt, Germany - MTV will honor late pop diva Whitney Houston with its 2012 MTV European Music Awards Global Icon Award. 


MTV will give a tribute to Houston's music and career at the EMA ceremony in Frankfurt, Germany Sunday night. 

"When we choose the Global Icons, we try to look at an artist that had a substantial career spanning a long period, at least a decade and we chose Whitney Houston for all the obvious reasons,' said Richard Godfrey, executive producer of the 2012 EMAs. "She had one of the greatest voices of all time and (has had) a huge influence on music and other artists. We all know her music lives on."

The honor for Houston will bring tributes to the recording artist full circle. Her sudden death earlier this year came shortly before the 2012 Grammy Awards. 

This will only be the third year MTV has presented its Global Icon honor at the EMAs. The previous two winners were Queen and Bon Jovi. 

The European Music Awards are the highlight of the European calendar for MTV. The 2012 show, hosted by supermodel and Project Runway host Heidi Klum, will go out live on MTV’s global network of channels reaching nearly 700 million households worldwide. 

Alicia Keys, Taylor Swift, Muse, The Killers and Korean pop sensation Psy will be among the live acts performing. 


Rihanna leads the nominations list for this year's EMAs with six, including ones for Best Female and Best Pop performer and for Best Song for her single with Calvin Harris, We Found Love.

Taylor Swift is right behind with five EMA nominations. Other multiple nominees at this year's event include Justin Bieber and Katy Perry with four nominations apiece and Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Lana Del Rey and newcomers Carly Rae Jepsen and fun., who picked up three nominations each.