DURAN DURAN - DURAN DURAN THRILLED BY GREATEST VIDEO ACCOLADE

DURAN DURAN THRILLED BY GREATEST VIDEO ACCOLADE

Duran Duran have expressed their delight at their video Rio being voted the greatest of all time by MTV viewers.

The 80s legends saw off competition from Nirvana, Michael Jackson and Madonna to claim the best video accolade.

Though Jackson's Thriller and Madonna's Like A Prayer made the headlines in their day while Fatboy Slim's Praise You, directed by Spike Jonze, defined a summer, the sun-drenched 1982 video for Rio was voted the greatest ever by MTV fans.

"We are all absolutely thrilled, honoured and delighted to have been voted the greatest video of all time by the viewers of MTV," said keyboardist Nick Rhodes.

"What makes this award so unique and special, is that it's voted for by the viewers. MTV has always been a very special home for us and its where our career first began, it feels as though we have gone full circle from where we started.

Rhodes added that MTV and Duran Duran has been on an "amazing journey" together.

Frontman Simon Le Bon said the band were "extremely honoured" to have the award for a video of which they have fond memories of making.

"It was shot on location at a time when very few artists had ventured out of the studio to film their videos," he said in a statement. "[Director] Russell Mulcahy did an amazing job and should share this with us.

"Our relationship with MTV has always been a very special one to us as we started out together and their support over the years was definitely instrumental in our success."

Having sold over 70 million records, consistently topped the charts around the world, Duran Duran are recognised as one of the most successful pop groups of the past three decades.

And since reforming in 2002, the band have been honoured with no less than five of the music industry's most prestigious awards including the MTV Video Music awards' Lifetime Achievement prize, the Q Magazine Lifetime Achievement award, the Brits' Outstanding Contribution to Music award and the Ivor Novello awards' outstanding contribution to British music honour.