The MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 took place on November 6, 2008 in Liverpool, United Kingdom at the Echo Arena. Nominations were officially announced on September 29, 2008. The hosts of the awards were Katy Perry with Jared Leto, Shannon Leto and Tomo Miličević of 30 Seconds to Mars hosting the interviews space called "Weird Things That Humans Do". The European-born award winners in 2008 were Tokio Hotel (Germany), Emre Aydın (Turkey), Rick Astley and Paul McCartney (UK) and all the regional awards winners. Nevertheless, the big winners of the night were 30 Seconds to Mars and Britney Spears winning two awards each.

Winners are in bold text.

Winners are in bold text.

The MTV Europe Music Awards ("EMAs") were established in 1994 by MTV Networks Europe to celebrate the most popular music videos in Europe. Originally beginning as an alternative to the American MTV Video Music Awards, the MTV Europe Music Awards is today a popular celebration of what MTV viewers consider the best in music. The awards are chosen by MTV viewers throughout Europe.

The MTV Europe Music Awards always changes its host city. It has been hosted four times in Germany and the United Kingdom, most recently in Belfast in 2011 and previously in London, Edinburgh and Liverpool.

The awards are presented annually and broadcast live on MTV Europe, MTV Live HD and most of the international MTV channels as well as online.

The first MTV Europe Music Awards in 1994 were held on November 22 four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. George Michael performed "Jesus To A Child" and "Freedom" surrounded by many famous models including Naomi Campbell and Bono received the Free Your Mind Award on behalf of Amnesty International.

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Perry grew up with gospel music, and during her first year of high school she pursued a music career as Katy Hudson, releasing her first studio album called Katy Hudson which failed to chart. She recorded a solo album later, which was never released. After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry.

She first gained recognition with the release of her first mainstream album, One of the Boys in 2008, which spawned three Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"I Kissed A Girl", "Hot n Cold" and "Waking Up In Vegas". Perry supported the album with her Hello Katy Tour. In 2010, her third studio album, Teenage Dream (2010), which topped the Billboard 200 chart, and spawned five number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T." and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"—Teenage Dream was the only album (after Michael Jackson's Bad)—to do so, and the first female in history to achieve this milestone. She embarked on the California Dreams Tour, which grossed nearly $60 million worldwide. Perry re-released the album under the name of Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection on March 26, 2012, and the re-release has already spawned the number-one single "Part of Me".

Tokio Hotel is a rock band from Germany, founded in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing. The quartet have scored four number one singles and have released three number one albums in their native country, selling nearly 5 million CDs and DVDs there. After recording an unreleased demo-CD under the name "Devilish" and having their contract with Sony BMG Germany terminated, the band released their first German-language album, Schrei, as Tokio Hotel on Universal Music Germany in 2005. Schrei sold more than half a million copies worldwide and spawned four top five singles in both Germany and Austria. In 2007, the band released their second German album Zimmer 483 and their first English album Scream which have combined album sales of over one million copies worldwide and helped win the band their first MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct. The former, Zimmer 483, spawned three top five singles in Germany while the latter, Scream, spawned two singles that reached the top twenty in new territories such as France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. In September 2008, they won in the US their first MTV Video Music Award (VMA) for Best New Artist. In October 2008, they won four awards including Best International Artist and Song of the year at Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica (MTV Video Music Awards Latin America) held in Mexico. Tokio Hotel became the first German band ever to win an award at the MTV VMAs and also at the MTV Latin America Awards. They also picked up the Headliner award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 held in Liverpool on November 6, 2008 and the Award for Best Group on November 5, 2009 at the MTV Europe Music Award (EMA) held in Berlin. They won an Award for Best World Stage Performance on November 7, 2010 at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Madrid. In July 2011, they became the first German band to win an MTV Video Music Awards Japan (VMAJ). And won MTV's 2012 Musical March Madness.

Emre Aydın (born February 2, 1981) is a Turkish rock singer-songwriter. He has been referred to as emreaydın on his official site to establish a trademark. The singer won the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 in the "Europe's Favourite Act" category. He is also the former lead singer for the Turkish rock band 6. Cadde.

Emre Aydın was born in Isparta on 2 February 1981 as the first child of Şaban and Nermin Aydın, who are both pharmacists. He has a younger brother named Yiğit. In his early years the family moved to Antalya. Emre began playing saz at an early age and later opted for guitar. He graduated from Antalya Anadolu Lisesi (high school) and then studied economics at Dokuz Eylül University in İzmir, upon his parents' wish. In a 2009 interview Emre admitted that he never attended a musical conservatory, because he did not want to have his musical experience transformed into school lessons and exam sessions, which he thought would make him lose interest in music.

In 2002, while at Dokuz Eylül University, Emre saw the advertisement of a musical competition, Sing Your Song, aired by a domestic television channel, Show TV. The jury included well-known Turkish rock singer Koray Candemir. With a friend, Onur Ela, they decided to apply with Emre's own song, Dönersen (If you come back), and out of 1500 applicants, they won the competition. The song was selected by Universal Music into a selection album and their band, named 6. Cadde was offered a contract with Universal Music Turkey.