With him will be Aqua, the Danish pop sensation who cartoon-ed their way into television screens with ``Barbie Girl''; British rock seniors Def Leppard, sure to go into a ``Hysteria'' with their famed ``Love Bites''; and teenage heartthrobs, ``911''. That's the line-up and it's a good thing that V-people have shifted venue from Indira Gandhi Stadium to the open air and flood-lit, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

The Channel V Music Awards was kicked off in 1996 when 19 prizes were given away to a host of talent from home and abroad. There were other specially instituted awards -- Lifetime Achievement Award, the Freddy Mercury Award for Music and Artistic Excellence and the Viewer's Choice Award which was introduced by V-mascot Udham Singh.

This time, the V-poll slogan is ``Vote de, Prize le'' with seven nominees for the Viewer's Choice Award: A R Rahman, Sonu Nigam, Shiamak Davar, Lucky Ali (last year's winner) Kamaal Khan, Silk Route and Daler Mehndi.

Almost all these nominated artistes are scheduled to perform on the awards night, but the tour de force will undoubtedly be Sting, who returns to Delhi after his legendary performance in 1988 when he sang at the Amnesty International Concert -- even doing ``Every Breath You Take'' as a duet with born-in-the-USA-Bruce Springsteen.

There's a buzz going around -- obviously sparked off by the hosts themselves -- that Channel V still has a few more names up their sleeve. The likes of Madonna and Ricky Martin were bandied about at today's press conference, though the V-people aren't confirming anything.

But there's no doubt why the awards aren't going places -- Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore for instance. ``The Government is here in Delhi and we don't have the Shiv Sena hassling us,'' said one charming V-person, making it amply clear why it's going to be New Delhi the second time in a row.