MTV puts off Latin awards in fear of Wilma hurricane

MTV postpones its Latin American music-video awards ceremony on Mexico's Caribbean coast on Wednesday because of Hurricane Wilma, the second time this year the weather has hit one of its shows.

Wilma, the strongest hurricane in terms of barometric pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic, is due to brush past the resort town of Playa del Carmen where MTV's Video Music Awards Latin America 2005 were to be held on Wednesday.

"While the eye of the storm is not expected to hit the Mexican Caribbean, we feel its effect is close enough to greatly impact our production," MTV said in a statement.

MTV had previously advanced the show by a day from Thursday, but then said it was postponing the ceremony indefinitely, reports Reuters.

According to Daily Telegraph, Wilma packed maximum sustained winds near 280km/h, making it a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm.

Hurricane Katrina had put a damper on pre-ceremony festivities at the MTV Video Music Awards in August as it hurled rain and wind at Miami on the way to New Orleans, although the main event was not interrupted.

Colombian pop star Shakira was set to sweep the Latin American awards with six nominations, including Best Female Artist.

Fellow Colombian Juanes, Argentine electro-pop group Miranda and Mexican rockers Molotov have also received several nominations each, reports the Daily Telegraph.

P.T.