LOS ANGELES — Leave it to the MTV Video Music Awards to give folks plenty to talk about the next day. There were triumph and tears, politics and bare boobs. Seriously. We are not even joking.
Here’s what you may have missed if you didn’t catch this year’s VMAs:
Kanye, bro …
It all started so hopefully.
Taylor Swift gave a nod to the now infamous VMAs incident from 2009 when Kanye West rushed the stage after Swift beat out Beyonce, proclaiming that “Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.” On Sunday night, Swift was there to present West with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
Typical Taylor, in that Swift had nice things to say, including that West’s “College Dropout” album was the first she purchased on iTunes when she was 12. And she called the rapper her friend.
Then West took to the stage, thanked Swift and things quickly went left.
He spoke of the aftermath of interrupting Swift all those many years ago. He bit the hand that was feeding him by saying, “You know how many times MTV ran that footage again, ’cause it got them more ratings?” He said “bro” a lot.
But mostly West rambled while Swift — and the rest of us — stood there looking perplexed.
He ended his speech by announcing, “And yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided, in 2020, to run for president.”
Then he literally dropped the mic.
Oh hey, Miley Cyrus’ boob
By now we all know that Miley Cyrus is going to do what she wants to do.
Her twerking skills at the VMAs in 2013 and all the attention she’s garnered since led to her being selected to host this year’s show, and it was so many things.
There were skits about how she acts out on Instagram thanks to her “Instagram Think Tank,” and one about her with her grandma, rapper Snoop Dogg and some marijuana brownies,
Cyrus made liberal use of the tape delay, as she cursed all she wanted, and her fashion throughout the evening defied description.
And if you thought she was scantily clad before the show in her barely there, sparkly Versace ensemble, you missed during the show when she was backstage changing, had the curtain dropped too low and showed all types of nipple.
And speaking of dropping, she also pulled a Beyonce and announced (after closing out the show with a performance) that her new album, “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz,” was now streaming online for free. In case anyone cared.
Justin Bieber was all in his feelings
If you are looking for some snark about Bieber’s new hairstyle you can move along, nothing to see here folks.
Instead, let’s discuss his performance. The Biebs sang “Where Are U Now” and his new single “What Do You Mean” and all seemed to be going well.
Then at the end the kid broke down. Like he appeared to be sobbing on stage. Was he grateful for the audience response in light of criticism of his past bad boy ways? Was he overwhelmed with seeing how amazing his ex, Selena Gomez, was looking in the front row? Did he miss his nap earlier?
We aren’t sure, but if the whole thing looked a bit familiar, it may be because you are remembering Chris Brown doing something similar during his performance at the BET Awards in 2010 following all the bad press he got after assaulting Rihanna.
Nicki Minaj flips the script
The show opened with Nicki Minaj giving us her all (and tons of her now famous backside) during her performance of “The Night Is Still Young.” Swift joined her, proving that indeed the pair had put their earlier misunderstanding behind them after Minaj complained about not receiving a certain nomination for the VMAs and Swift thought the rapper was aiming criticism at her.
It was all love as the pair segued from Minaj’s song into Swift’s hit “Bad Blood.”
But while Minaj and Swift are all good, it didn’t seem like the same could be said about Minaj and Cyrus.
While accepting the best hip-hop video award for her song “Anaconda,” Minaj thanked her pastor and then proceeded to take a jab at Cyrus over a New York Times story where Cyrus appeared to side with Swift in her past beef with the rapper.
“And now, back to this b***h that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press,” Minaj said, gesturing at Cyrus. “Miley what’s good.”
Cyrus seemed to take it in stride, responding, “Hey, we’re all in this industry, we all do interviews and we all know how they manipulate s**t. Nicki, congratulations.”
