Female stars shine onstage at MTV’s VMA
BEYONCE dominated the MTV Video Music Awards, prowling the stage with a 15 minute medley from her powerful Lemonade album and taking home eight statuettes, including the top prize – video of the year.
On a night when women ruled, Britney Spears returned to the VMA stage for the first time in a decade and Rihanna performed four times to mark her lifetime achievement award.
Beyonce brought the house down at New York’s Madison Square Garden, stringing together five of her Lemonade album tracks about betrayal, revenge and female empowerment in a song and dance routine that brought a long standing ovation.
VMA organisers had announced only three hours before Sunday’s show began that Beyonce would perform. The singer arrived on the red carpet accompanied by the mothers of three African-American men who have died at the hands of US police in the past two years.
Her politically charged Formation beat Adele's 2015 comeback single Hello, Drake’s Hotline Bling, Justin Bieber’s Sorry and Kanye West’s sleeping nude celebrity look-alikes in Famous for video of the year.
Where Beyonce was angry and bold, Spears, 34, dressed in a sparkly gold leotard and matching over the knee boots was slinky retro pop. It was the Toxic singer’s first time on the VMA stage since her humiliating 2007 performance when her personal and professional life was falling apart, and follows the release of a new album last week.
Rihanna, 28, sang 13 of the biggest hits in her 13-year career, including Rude Girl, Diamonds and Only Girl in the World. She was presented with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award by Canadian rapper Drake. — Reuters