Beyonce proves she’s in a lane of her own at MTV VMAs

NEW YORK >> Beyonce proved once again she is the contemporary rock star, and she used the MTV Video Music Awards stage to showcase her skills and outshine her peers, from Rihanna to Britney Spears.

Beyonce won eight awards, including video of the year, and performed five songs from her visual album “Lemonade” in an epic 16-minute concert Sunday that had the audience at Madison Square Garden in awe.

She sang live, danced heavily and worked the crowd as she ran through “Pray You Catch Me,” “Hold Up,” “Sorry,” “Don’t Hurt Yourself” and “Formation,” which won the top prize over Adele, Drake, Justin Bieber and Kanye West.

“First of all, I’d like to thank my beautiful daughter and my incredible husband for all of their support,” said Beyonce, who walked the carpet with daughter Blue Ivy and the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner — who all appeared in “Lemonade” movie.

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, singing hits such as “Work,” “We Found Love” and “Love on the Brain.”

But the biggest moment for Rihanna came when Drake — in a tuxedo — presented the award to his former girlfriend. He said he met Rihanna in 2005 on the set of her first music video for “Pon de Replay.”