Which song was the first music video played on MTV Europe at its 1987 launch?

Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” was the first music video played on MTV Europe at its 1987 launch.

MTV Europe began broadcasting on 1 August 1987 from Amsterdam. The choice was especially memorable because the song’s lyrics include the phrase “I want my MTV,” echoing the channel’s branding and making it a natural launch selection.

The video, directed by Steve Barron, used computer-generated imagery to depict animated appliance-store workers watching television. It became one of the best-known early examples of computer animation in a mainstream music video and helped reinforce the song’s media-focused theme.

This fact is often confused with MTV’s United States launch, whose first video was The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” in 1981. “Money for Nothing” belongs specifically to the launch of the European service six years later.