TRL Takes a Final Glittering Bow

Diamond jewelry made a sparkling appearance at the finale of MTV’s TRL last night– from Hilary Duff’s gorgeous white and black diamond fan earrings to Nelly’s icey dog tags.

For those of you who have been able to successfully ignore the MTV phenomenon over the past ten years, TRL is short for “Total Request Live”, an American Bandstand-type show that helped artists promote their latest offerings and gave screaming fans a chance to burst their vocal chords.

Host Carson Daly (the MTV generation’s Dick Clark) welcomed back a dazzling list of performers, including a gorgeous Beyonce, a blinged out 50 Cent, Kid Rock, Christina Aguilera and my favorite boy band graduate, the cute-as-a-button, Justin Timberlake.

Another highlight was Blink 182’s Travis Barker, who appeared via satellite from Los Angeles in his first televised interview since surviving his Sept. 19 plane crash.

"Every day gets better. I feel better every day," he told fans. "I'm already playing my drums again and am back in the studio. I'm thankful to be able to play."

Former host and Nick Lachey main squeeze, Vanessa Manillo, appeared in glittering diamond star drop earrings but unfortunately wore a dress that Paris Hilton made famous on the David Letterman show a few weeks back. Ouch. New stylist, anyone?

But perhaps the night’s most talked about performance was a surprisingly tight showing by the only boy band still standing, The Backstreet Boys. Also surprising was how I found myself singing every word to their hit, “I Want It That Way”, while watching last night.

OK. Maybe it’s not that surprising…

While youngsters like singer, Taylor Swift, remember coming of age to this television classic, many musicians experienced career-changing experiences on the show.

Perhaps a resurfaced Eminem said it best when he phoned in and said, “I feel like they’re tearing down my home.”

Or as *NSYNC would say, “tearing up my heart”…

Good bye TRL! You will (admittedly) be missed…