GLISTEN UP!
As feuds fizzled, stars lit up the red carpet and the stage for mmusic’s big night
T HE pre-show squabbles between Katy Perry and Taylor Swift amounted to little at MTV’s Video Music Awards on Sunday. Instead, they were overshadowed by some of the finest artists in modern music (and also Shawn Mendes) together inside the Forum in Los Angeles for the annual pop party. Here are the best and worst moments from the show. Kendrick Lamar
The Compton rapper’s intention was clearly to burn the house down,dow and he did that with his fiery performance. In his spectaculartacu show opener, Lamar melded the “Damn” tracks “DNA” and “Humble,” and was was flanked by ninjas climbing a wall
of fire. The 2017 VMAs rarely got better. Miley Cyrus
The pre-show rumors were of X-rated puppet shows, or even a tirade about President Trump, but this year, Miley let her music do the talking. Her gorgeous new song “Younger Now,” delivered with that powerhouse voice, was performed with what looked like a cast of the AARP’s hippest readers and featured a supercool interpolation of Link Wray’s early rock ’n’ roll classic “Rumble.” Taylor Swift
The hotly anticipated video for her new single “Look What You Made Me Do” found T-Swift at war not with Kanye or Katy Perry, but mostly with herself. The best part of the big-budget clip (directed by longtime collaborator Joseph Kahn) ended with the star poking fun at her many personas over the years in a way that was much more self-aware than the song itself led us to believe at first. Hold back on the obituaries, because she’s not done yet. DNCE and Rod Stewart
The idea of Joe Jonas’ group uniting with the ’70s rocker to perform “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” seemed like a disaster in the making. Instead, Jonas’ luscious moustache and Stewart’s bedazzling silver jacket helped create one of the evening’s most festive and outrageously silly numbers. Amidst the show’s many moody moments this provided a much-needed jolt of camp and color. WORST Ed Sheeran and Lil Uzi Vert
The Brit just keeps finding new ways to underwhelm us. Even on the 7,386th listen, “Shape of You” still sounds like a song written by an algorithm. But Sheeran’s duet with Lil Uzi Vert managed to turn “XO Tour Llif3” (a dark hip-hop track about overindulgence to the point of numbness) into an anemic load of nothing. Uzi should have known better than to let this happen. MTV’s scriptwriters
Katy Perry’s hosting stint will undoubtedly go down as a dud, but the sad thing is that even she knew her material was bombing. The whole show was loosely themed around her being an astronaut and finally returning from space to catch up on events on Earth. Cue numerous weak political gags, a fidget spinner, a painfully poor bit about the Fyre Festival and a dumb segment (assisted by DJ Khaled and his son, Asahd) about having a baby to boost her social-media impact. It was all delivered poorly, but spare Perry all the scorn, because you can’t make chocolate frosting from a busted sewage pipe.