Beyonce makes a statement. It’s fabulous, too.
Beyonce owned the MTV Video Music Awards—like she did in 2014—with a 16-minute performance featuring her recent hits from Lemonade, working various stages with strong, layered vocals, skilled dance moves and even an outfit change—all as the audience watched in awe and cheered her on.
Queen B kicked off her strong set with Pray You Catch Me as blue lights beamed onstage. She was wearing white, but later stripped down to a black leotard with full sleeves as she sang Hold Up and
Sorry. She grew angry and twerked while performing Don’t Hurt Yourself and ended with the anthemic Formation.
“If y’all came to slay, sing along with me,” she said.
The audience at Madison Square Garden watched intensely yesterday, at times recording the performance with their phones.
It was reminiscent of the 2014 VMAs, when Beyonce also performed for 16 minutes and accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award. This year it was awarded to Rihanna, who split up her performances throughout the night.
Beyonce’s top-notch performance was the opposite of Britney Spears’, who returned to the VMA stage after 10 years. Not only did she lip sync, in typical fashion, she did so badly. Spears performed her hit Make Me... and danced slickly, but she didn’t actually sing a word of the song live. She was joined by rapper G-Eazy—and she lip synched the hook to his hit song, Me, Myself and I.
Netizens called Beyonce “the greatest” and “a legend” on Twitter, while calling out Spears for not even trying.
As if that wasn’t enough, Bey made history for collecting the most VMA wins with 22, breaking Madonna’s 20.
Beyonce was the top nominee of the night with 11, including video of the year for Formation, which she won. She won best female video for Hold Up, presented to her by four of the Final Five gymnasts, excluding Gabby Douglas, who was hospitalized for a mouth infection.
“Thank you to my fans. I love you,” she said. “Have a beautiful night.”
Beyonce was angel-winged and green-feathered with daughter Blue Ivy in tow as she arrived on the white carpet along with Sybrina Fulton, Lezley McSpadden and Gwen Carr, the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, among others. They appeared in videos for Beyonce’s Lemonade visual album and also make up the Mothers of the Movement, women of color who lost children to violence.
In typical and true Kanye West fashion, the rapper ranted onstage, touching on subjects from music to his beef with Taylor Swift to violence in his hometown Chicago. Before he debuted his music video for Fade, West rambled onstage as the audience in New York City cheered him on.
“Now later tonight Famous might lose to Beyonce but I can’t be mad, I’m always wishing for Beyonce to win,” said West, who competed with Beyonce for video of the year, and also referring to the 2009 VMAs when he jumped onstage, stole Swift’s microphone and said Beyonce should have won over the then-country singer.
He talked about his Famous video, which features what appears to be naked images of West, Swift, Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump and more. He even pointed to former girlfriend Amber Rose, who was in the audience and is also in the video.
“It was an expression of our now, our fame right now, us on the inside of the TV, you know, the audacity to put Anna Wintour right next to Donald Trump,” he said.
“I put Ray J in it, bro,” he said, referring to Kardashian’s ex with whom she did a sex tape.
“But if you think about last week it was 22 people murdered in Chicago,” he continued. “You know, people come up to me like, ‘Man, that’s right! Take, tell Taylor this. Bro, like I love all y’all.”
“That’s why I called her,” he said with a laugh.
Rihanna kicked off the show, performing a medley of her hit songs in a bright pink ensemble that matched her background dancers and the stage. She sang songs like We Found Love and
Where Have You Been— sometimes letting the backing track do most of the work. She sang Work and other songs during a second performance, and received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award from rumored boyfriend Drake.
The netizens went into overdrive especially when Drake, 29, said: “She’s someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22 years old.”
Ariana Grande brought spin class to the VMA stage when she sang the reggae-tinged Side to Side with Nicki Minaj. Grande cycled while singing and was backed by female dancers imitating her. Male dancers lifted dumbbells and did other exercises, and at the end of their performance, Grande and Minaj put their male dancers’ faces in front of their crotches.
Michael Phelps said he’s been inspired by hip-hop music before introducing Future, who Phelps said he listened to before swimming. The rapper-singerproducer performed his hit (Expletive) Up Some Commas.
Drake won the first award for the night—best hip hop video for Hotline Bling. Puff Daddy, who presented the award, said Drake was stuck in traffic. Good thing he did not miss the part where he was going to present the Vanguard award.
Calvin Harris won best male video— beating West’s Famous— for This is What
You Came For, which featured Rihanna and was co-written with former girlfriend Swift. Harris accepted the award in a video message. Of course he didn’t thank Swift.
Fifth Harmony and Ty Dolla $ign won best collaboration video for
Work from Home. The girl group also won song of the summer for Flex (All In My Head).
Social media was surprised that Fifth Harmony and Ty Dolla $ign won over Rihanna and Drake’s
Work, and Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar’s Freedom.
DNCE won best new artist. The band duked it out with Bryson Tiller down to the last part as the category was voted on by the fans. VoteDNCE trended for the first hour of the show, so fans were no longer surprised by the win.
Fans, however, were surprised by DNCE’s Joe Jonas’ brother Nick Jonas who performed his song
Bacon with Ty Dolla $ign. It shows Nick was a good sport following his rant against the VMAs for failing to nominate his song Chains with Tove Lo.
David Bowie died last January but his artistry lives on. His last video, Blackstar, won best art direction.