MTV HAS CONFIRMED that its flagship annual Europe Music Awards event will be held in Belfast this year, with the showpiece occasion returning to Ireland after 12 years away.

The station confirmed this morning via Twitter that the awards would be held in the Northern Irish capital, with the Odyssey Arena confirmed as the venue for the show on Sunday 6 November.

In a release, MTV referred to the city as “the home of such renowned artist [sic] as Snow Patrol and Van Morrison” and was considered “the perfect for one of the world’s biggest nights in music and we can’t wait to take over the town!”

The Belfast Telegraph added that the local City Council had hinted the awards would be taking place there last night, when a meeting agreed with contribute £320,000 (€377,500) towards the running of the event.

Chairman of the council’s development authority, Conor Maskey, said winning the awards – beating competition from Paris, Istanbul and Warsaw – was “no mean feat”.

MTV’s Antonio Campo Dall’Orto said the choice had been swung by Belfast’s “vibrant nightlife and compelling music scene”.

Aside from providing a significant boost to local tourism and the economy – the 2003 awards in Edinburgh, brought in around £11 for every £1 spent on hosting the event – it will also draw a number of high-profile musical acts to the city, as the show usually features a strong selection of world-class acts.

The awards were last held in Ireland in 1999, when they were held in the Point Theatre in Dublin in a ceremony hosted by Ronan Keating – and more notably remembered for a retrospectively-redacted remark from Boyzone’s Shane Lynch.

He had told shocked viewers that Boyzone – who won an award for Best Album – were not disbanding, and that rumours suggesting otherwise were “a load of f*****g s***e”.