MTV’s Video Music Awards went down Sunday night and it was another evening filled with crazy. Technically, there was no host (unlike Miley last year) but Key and Peele, as two social media-loving characters, were kind of at the helm. They were whatevs, especially if you’ve never watched their show, but the rest of the night was predictably stellar VMAs fare. Beyoncé slayed, Britney performed and Kanye spoke so we all knew crazy was coming — but there were a few things we didn’t expect. Like:
Drake declared his love for Rihanna
Throughout the night, Vanguard Award winner Rihanna performed four separate medleys. After her last one, Drake — who didn’t arrive on time to pick up his own award — came out to present her moon man with the best speech ever, telling the crowd “she’s someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22 years old.” She didn’t reciprocate during her acceptance speech but she clearly dug it.
Kanye mentioned Kim, Amber Rose, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney and of course brought up Taylor again
The VMAs gave Kanye four minutes to do and say whatever he wanted; so naturally he rambled about his ex, his wife, his idol Diddy and–because he can’t let it die–his feud with Swifty.
“People say, ‘Oh, but you have that beef with Taylor,’ but I love all y’all — that’s why I called her,” he said, referencing conversation Kim recorded about his his “Famous” lyrics.
Then he debuted his latest video which basically featured a nearly naked woman dancing like she was in Flashdance before she transformed into a cat. We know. We didn’t get it either.
Calvin Harris snubbed Swifty
He won for Best Male Video and while he wasn’t there to accept the award, he did record his speech, thanking Rihanna, who’s featured on the track, but ex-girlfriend Taylor — who co-wrote and sang backup on the song — didn’t get a mention. Yep, that’s about right.
Britney returned to the VMA stage
Her lip-syncing was horrendous but she looked a zillion times better than she did nine years ago when she half-assed her way through her performance. Also, G-Eazy is going to be the next K-Fed, isn’t he?
Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande reunited
Instead of Jessie J, though, the “Bang Bang” girls collaborated on “Side By Side” with some hard-core spinning dancers in unitards. The hell?
Jimmy Fallon did a bang-on impression of Ryan Lochte
And Michael Phelps couldn’t get enough of it.
Speaking of Phelps, the inspo behind #PhelpsFace was revealed
Phelps told the crowd his epic Olympics face was inspired by his love of hip hop and for the rapper Future. It all makes sense now.
Alicia Keys’ slam poetry earned an “Amen!”
She sent a strong message about equality for both women and men, as well as continuing with her makeup-free movement. YAAAS. To all of this.
And then there was Beyoncé …
She walked the carpet with Blue Ivy, who was basically a princess come to life.
Then she proceeded to annhiliate her Lemonade medley as only a queen can. She looked angelic in a white feather coat, shimmied in a lace black leotard, smashed the camera with a baseball bat, was illuminated by flames and concluded by getting into “Formation” with her bad-ass dancers. If this was the entire show, we wouldn’t have been mad.
All rights reserved