The MTV Video Movie Awards are back and bigger than ever. Beyonce dominated in not only her killer performance, but also in her win of eight Moonmen. The VMAs event was held, for the first time ever, at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, Aug. 28.
The first Moonman of the night went to Drake for Best Hip Hop Video for “Hotline Bling.” Unfortunately, Drake was stuck in traffic and wasn’t available to accept his award.
Ariana Grande and Nikki Minaj gave one of the oddest performances of the night. The duo performed their duet “Side By Side,” which came off of Grande’s 2016 release, “Dangerous Woman.”
The performance started off with Grande sitting on a stationary, work-out bike, while singing, which made her voice sound jumpy and out-of-breath. Minaj, unfortunately, didn’t sound any better. Her microphone echoed throughout Madison Square Garden, making it hard to understand what she was saying.
Kanye West took the stage to premiere his new music video for “Fade.” Before he could do that, however, he gave a speech. It was awkward to say the least.
West started off by saying he was probably going to lose Video of the Year to Beyonce, but continued on to say that in the end, he wouldn’t be angry because he’s always rooted for Beyonce. West, of course, took this time to talk about his long-lived feud with Taylor Swift. By the time he was done talking, he left viewers completely confused on what his whole speech really was about.
Nick Jonas and Ty Dolla $ign gave one of the most memorable performances of the night when they performed Jonas’ song “Bacon” from a diner. It was definitely unlike anything I’d seen before. Each booth in the diner featured a different celebrity. Jonas’ own brother, and front man of DNCE, Joe was in one booth and model Ashley Graham was in another.
The best moment of the whole night was Beyonce’s performance, hands down. She performed a medley of five songs off of her latest release, “Lemonade.” She started the set off with “Pray to Catch Me” and then ended with “Formation.” Any viewer could tell that Beyonce brought in her own crew for this performance because there was no way MTV would have been able to pull this off.
The whole show was a mess. It looked like MTV forgot the VMAs were happening this week and just threw something together. The cameras were shaky and it looked like no one knew exactly what was going on. Also, who allowed DJ Khaled to stop by? He kept asking every single person he came in contact with for a job.
The remaining performances came from Britney Spears featuring G-Eazy and The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey and they were all right. They were fun to watch but in the end, were forgettable.
Rihanna recieved the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award and performed four different times throughout the night. Although her performances were great, I would rather have had Rihanna just perform one long set. That way we could’ve seen it all come together. It would’ve made more sense to give Rihanna the 15 minute show time rather than Beyonce, especially considering she was receiving the most important award. At the same time, I don’t think it would’ve gone that well if that were the case.
At the end of Rihanna’s last performance, Drake came on stage to give a touching speech about how deserving and incredible Rihanna is. Drake expressed his love for his now girlfriend saying, “She’s someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22 years old.” It was a very touching moment and Rihanna had a very inspirational speech to follow.
Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award: Rihanna
Song of the Summer: Fifth Harmony ft. Flex – “All In My Head”
Video of the Year: Beyonce – “Formation
Best Female Video: Beyonce – “Hold Up”
Best Male Video: Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna – “This Is What You Came For”
Best Collaboration: Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Work From Home”
Best Hip Hop Video: Drake – “Hotline Bling”
Best Pop Video: Beyonce – “Formation”
Best Rock Video: Twenty One Pilots – “Heathens”
Best Electronic Video: Calvin Harris & Disciples – “How Deep Is Your Love”
Breakthrough Long Form Video: Beyonce – “Lemonade”
Best New Artist: DNCE
Best Art Direction: David Bowie – “Blackstar”
Best Choreography: Beyonce – “Formation”
Best Direction: Beyonce – “Formation”
Best Cinematography: Beyonce – “Formation”
Best Editing: Beyonce – “Formation”
Best Visual Effects: Coldplay – “Up&Up”