Rare footage of a promotional crossover between Sega's Dreamcast classic Space Channel 5 and the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards has appeared online, definitively bringing an end to decades of misinformation.
Back in 2000, several outlets, including IGN and Gamespot, reported that Ulala, the pink-haired reporter and protagonist of the Sega rhythm game, would present the Best Dance Video award at the music awards show, which took place on September 7th of that year. However, fans and video game historians have been unable to find any footage of this crossover actually taking place, leading people to suspect it was planned but cancelled for some unknown reason.
Over the years, notable Sega of America figures, including former president Peter Moore and Sega of America's promotions manager Heather Kashner, have continued to insist in interviews that the promotion did take place, suggesting there was likely more to the story for those interested in diving deeper.
In 2023, the video game historians Chris Chapman and Kate Willaert tried to get to the bottom of the mystery once and for all, referring back to the original press release from Sega. This led to the discovery that the initial reporting had actually been inaccurate and that Ulala's role wasn't to present an award at all, but instead to present "the best dance video category in 50 [TV] spots". In other words, she wasn't actually meant to be at the award show, but in special TV promotions leading up to the night.
At the time of this discovery, footage of these spots had yet to appear online, showing what they actually looked like, with Chapman considering them "lost media". But then, in December 2025, the YouTube archivist VHS Archival published footage of one of these spots online, finally putting the confusion to bed once and for all.
In the footage, we see Ulala introducing the five nominees and their videos, including *NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye, Britney Spears' (You Drive Me) Crazy, Jennifer Lopez's Waiting for Tonight, and Sisqó's Thong Song. In case you're interested, Jennifer Lopez would later go on to win the award at the event itself.
So there you have it! 25 years later, a piece of rare Sega history has finally reappeared.