Credit: MTV Asia and Kristian Dowling
His minute-long performance with a twerking (a dance which involves hip thrusts while maintaining a squatting stance) Miley Cyrus at the Video Music Awards (VMAs) has reportedly drawn the most tweets in the world, peaking at 360,000 tweets per minute.
The VMA performance was part of Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop/Blurred Lines/Give It 2 U” medley. What shocked the world was it saw the previously wholesome 20-year-old Hannah Montana alter ego dancing provocatively and making sexually suggestive gestures throughout Robin Thicke’s time on stage.
Of course, the singer-songwriter who was nominated for 6 awards at VMA – “Video Of The Year”, “Best Song Of The Summer”, “Best Collaboration”, “Best Male Video” and “Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award” – remains seemingly nonchalant about the whole controversy when quizzed about it at the MTV World Stage 2013 press conference on Sep 8. “What was controversial?” he asked, shrugging, “Miley and I knew exactly what we were doing.” he insisted.
Thicke was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as part of the line-up of the annual MTV World Stage.
Credit: MTV Asia and Kristian Dowling
Elaborating to reporters including UrbanWire, he confessed that the act of posing with nude models in photo shoots and dancing with them in his music video, are all done on the suggestion and encouragement from his wife, actress Paula Patton.
This seems to be part of his grand plan to fulfill his dream of being a great artiste. “I’m just happy to be getting all this attention because it gives me a chance for people to hear my music and when I die, the only thing that will matter to me is the music that I left behind, not some performance on MTV that everyone will forget,” Thicke explained.
“For me, I can’t please everybody. I just can’t do it,” said the clean shaven, smartly dressed man whose hit single “Blurred Lines” peaked at number 1 in 14 countries, including the US, UK and Australia and shattered the radio record for largest radio audience by over 50 million.
The current album Blurred Lines, which featured numbers with R&B and pop roots, is his most famous yet. The triple platinum award-winning title track Is the pinnacle of his decade-long career in music, which featured soul songs such as “Love Without U” until his latest album.
Credit: MTV Asia and Kristian Dowling
The 36-year-old has always dreamed of becoming a musician. Crediting his parents, actors Alan Thicke and Gloria Loring (best known for playing Jason Seaver from Growing Pains and Liz Chandler on Days Of Our Lives) as being extremely supportive, he explains how he gets performance advice from his mother and production, songwriting and life advice from his father.
Describing himself as a “family man”, the laid back American-Canadian cites his wife and high school sweetheart, Patton as his inspiration and the person who “made me cool”. His 3-year-old son, Julian Fuego, is also the light of his life. “I’m happiest when I’m with my son,” he added at the press conference, melting the heart of every woman in the room.
Widely described in the media as someone who has sex appeal, he reveals his secret of morphing from daddy to sex bomb. “I think the number one thing is that you have to want to be sexy. I want to be sexy so I try to be and I think the exciting thing is being kind, being funny, brushing your teeth, putting on cologne.” He joked, laughing before he continued. “I think, ‘sexy’ is always confidence and kindness and I think those are the 2 things I try to exude as much as possible.”