Last Sunday’s Video Music Awards brought the music back to MTV, as the channel honored the past year in music videos. As with previous years, the show gave viewers plenty to talk about. The awards ceremony rolled out with performances from some of music’s heaviest hitters, which were filled with costume changes, reunions, and, of course, controversy.
No stranger to the VMAs, Lady Gaga kicked off the night with her latest single, “Applause.” The performance began with boos, as Gaga wore a giant square on her head, in a getup that was completely Gaga. As the performance went on, Gaga changed costumes throughout her time on stage, each look corresponding to different era of her career. She changed wigs, costumes, and gave another classic, although a bit subdued, Gaga performance.
Another of the night’s performance was by Kanye West, performing “Blood on the Leaves,” from his latest album, Yeezus. West performed against a backdrop of trees while he remained largely in silhouette. It was seemingly appropriate that West performed while remaining a shadow, since his performance failed to shine on the VMA stage.
The night’s biggest honor, the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, went to Justin Timberlake this year. Timberlake joins the ranks of past honorees, including The Beatles, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, and Britney Spears. Before accepting the award, Timberlake danced through a medley of twelve singles. As one of the night’s major highlights, Timberlake brought back his former band members on stage with him, as they went through some of the group’s biggest hits, including a recreation of the band’s 2000 VMA performance. *NSYNC’s performance came and went in a flash, but despite the short stage time, the group’s reunion brought out some early 2000s nostalgia, and left the audience clamoring for more. As Timberlake continued his 15 minute medley, he proved the consummate performer, and the mini-concert gave him one of the night’s biggest moments.
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis continued the night with a performance of their gay rights anthem, “Same Love.” It was a spirited and emotional rendition of the single, which also offered a surprise, as Jennifer Hudson joined the duo and Mary Lambert on stage. Earlier in the show, the song’s video won the award for Best Video with a Social Message, with the duo accepting the award with the declaration that “Gay rights are human rights. There is now separation.”
Bruno Mars chose to debut his new single, “Gorilla” on the VMA stage. With clear vocals and an amazing light show, Mars proved that he could put on what could have been a show stopping performance, but it was lost in the shuffle of the show’s more insane moments.
All night long, MTV hyped up Katy Perry’s closing performance, reminding us that it was going to be in an iconic location, and showing us her trip from the Barclays Center to the Brooklyn Bridge. Finally, as the night came to a close, all the hype for the debut performance of “Roar” proved to be anticlimactic. Despite the claim that she had “the eye of the tiger,” the boxing themed performance, complete with shiny gold boxing ring and a jump rope breakdown was less than a knockout.
You didn’t think we forgot about the night’s most talked about performance, did you? Miley Cyrus’s was the night’s biggest moment, generating more than 306,000 tweets per minute, out-tweeting last year’s Super Bowl blackout. From her cracked out teddy bear dancers to twerking to grinding up on Robin Thicke, the performance might have been the most memorable of the night, and maybe for the wrong reasons. Whether you thought that Cyrus’ performance was a trashy, fun mess or just an inappropriate display of someone desperately wanting to declare that they are grown up, it was over the top and scandalous, and aren’t those the type of performances we have come to expect from 30 years of the VMAs?
Photo Courtesy of MTV.