Lenny Kravitz presents Emmy Founder's Award to Bill Roedy
Lenny Kravitz honored Bill Roedy at the 2005 MTV Networks International Youth Aids Global Launch Dinner with a moving speech before presenting him with the Youth AIDS Corporate Citizenship Award:
Thank you, thank you. Good Evening. How is everybody? Alright, good.
You know, 20 years is a long time in any place, but in rock n' roll 20 years is an eternity and it's the distance between the Beatles singing wanna hold your hand' and Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk and MTV has been at the centre of pop music for more than 20 years and it's just getting going. Under Bill Roedy's leadership around the world MTV gives a voice to rappers in Russia, pop bands in Japan, and Bollywood stars in India. As Bill says "MTV was local before local was cool ...did you say that? They said you said that, I'm just checking.
And with an audience of a billion people in 160 countries, the company's about to hit their 100 channel mark with the launch of MTV Africa.
While others shied away from difficult issues MTV has faced them head on they've worked year after year to fight HIV and Aids in countries where the problem is enormous and often ignored and besides being MTV's chief around the world, Bill is also ambassador for UNAIDS, what's if called, exactly, that's it, ok, cause they wrote that funny, I'm just making sure.
From working with world leaders like Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton to helping with HIV prevention efforts in India or South Africa, no task is too small. And this is an enlightened businessman... that I know is true. And it's a guy who lands in a new country every week and spends the day taking care of business at the highest level and then goes down to the club to get some local music and this is why I'm here to hand this man an award.
Bill also goes to the part of town where tourists don't like to visit. An AIDS hospice or to talk to AIDS orphans. This is a man whose first question when he walks into a place is: 'How can MTV help?'
....He doesn't distinguish between the famous and forgotten... that's why we honor him. In the last month he's been to ten countries from Moscow to South Africa on to Miami and New York then to Berlin and Rome and he just arrived in town from Beirut to be here. Busy cat.
When he gets the weekend off, instead of going home to chill out he goes to Beirut to hear Arabic music and see the country rebuilding itself. Bill Roedy is a walking contradiction. A successful businessman who goes to work in sneakers and cargo pants, a graduate of West Point and Harvard who spends his life with guitar players and hip hoppers; a Vietnam vet who goes to Cuba to visit Castro he didn't call me for that one and the president of rowdy youthful rebellion who lives in a church. What do you think? Maybe that's not a contradiction at all, maybe it's just being a man in full?
It's a privilege for me to give the International Emmy Founders Award 2004 Award to Bill Roedy and MTV.
Bill Roedy’s Acceptance Speech
Lenny Kravitz, Oh my God, I'm not worthy. Ok guess who is not the rock star here... Thank you Lenny, thank you. I appreciate those kind words, they’re really kind.
Well, I feel a little bit like Milli Vanilli, when they accepted their award at the Grammys.
Obviously, I don't do this stuff alone. So many people work on MTV and on our Staying Alive efforts. So many great people all around the world who bring their passion, their creativity, their amazing energy to making a difference in their countries and their communities.
You can actually see their diverse points of view on the air. In fact, our channels have multiple personalities - India reflects colorful street culture, self-effacing sense of humor;
Japan is a bit technical, techy;
Brazil is sexy; Italy is about style, 'molto elegante;
and in Indonesia, which is our largest Muslim population, we have a call to prayer five times a day. So diversity is our thing but we also try to be a global citizen.
We don't always get it right, we really don't. But one of the things we know is that the AIDS epidemic is a defining moral issue of our time.
More than half of all new HIV infections globally are below age 25 - that's our audience.
Worldwide media, many of you in this room, can take the lead in helping to fight the epidemic. In fact, the media can empower audiences globally and literally, literally save lives. I'a like to thank our many partners around the world, like I said earlier we don't do this alone. So we thank you for your partnership and your support. Together, only together, we can make a difference, we can truly, truly make a difference.
And thank you Lenny, by the way, his music is really, really good. Thank you, thank you.
