On Sunday, MTV opened up the music award season with the first major award ceremony in its annual Video Music Awards. Only six awards were presented during the shortened telecast, with only a few artists walking away with the coveted “Moon Person.”
Once the show finally began after a 20-minute delay, it opened with a performance by the night’s leader in award nominations, Madonna, her first VMAs performance in 23 years. Her latest album, “Confessions II,” garnered 13 nominations for the night, including a Best Collaboration nomination for her song with Sabrina Carpenter, who joined her onstage to perform their song, “Bring Your Love.”
The song moved into a medley with the live debut of her newest song, “Danceteria Afterhours,” with another of the biggest women in music, Charli xcx. The eight-minute set was a showcase of the queen of pop’s ability to still put on a show at the same award ceremony she used to dominate in the 1980s.
The first award of the night was Best Pop, and the winner shocked even its presenter, Tayana Taylor. Amongst some of the biggest songs of the year, including Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia,” Olivia Rodrigo’s “drop dead” and Ariana Grande’s “hate that i made you love me,” it was LISA’s collaboration with Kentaro Sakaguchi, “Dream,” that walked away with the award.
Next to take the stage was British vocal powerhouse RAYE, with a medley of her Song of the Year-nominated track “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!” and her album track, “I Will Overcome” The transition from her orchestral performance sporting a white fur coat to a bombastic jazz band snatched in a sparkling red dress was a show-stopping moment in the ceremony.
Joining Kacey Musgraves in a tribute cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” was a clip from the late country singer herself. The two joined in a harmony of the chorus before Musgraves took the reins in a tear-jerking cover in honor of one of the “Dry Spell” singer’s musical icons.
Returning to the stage for the second time of the night were Madonna and Carpenter to accept the award for Best Collaboration. The award marks Madonna’s first VMAs victory since 1999 for her song “Ray of Light.”
The 68-year-old superstar took a moment to acknowledge how the song came about, joking about how Carpenter’s team did not respond to Madonna’s request for collaboration for five days. Carpenter joined the lighthearted quip, saying, “My team is s---ing themselves backstage.”
After taking home the first award of the night, LISA took the stage to perform her new single off her upcoming EP, “SaWaDiKa.” The performance featured a fight sequence between LISA and over a dozen of her backup dancers.
One of the most legendary awards in music is the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. The award is a special gold “Moon Person” trophy given as a lifetime achievement award and has been awarded to superstars like Madonna, Janet Jackson, Beyoncé and Missy Elliott.
This year, the award went to grunge band Nirvana, whose surviving members took the stage to accept the award in recognition of their contributions and impact on music videos and popular culture. While accepting the award, Krist Novoselic credited the late Kurt Cobain for the ideas for the music videos; “Kurt was one of one.”
Further improving on an already excellent night was Madonna, taking home the award for Artist of the Year. In her acceptance speech, she referenced her performance at the first VMAs 43 years ago.
A name that has snuck through the ceremony so far was Swift, the winner of the most VMAs in the ceremony’s history. That was until friend and music video collaborator Dakota Johnson took to the stage to present Swift with the first-ever Artist Director Honor, in recognition of her directing work on her own music videos.
In honor of the award, Swift gave the VMAs audience the debut of the music video for her latest single, “Patient Zero.” Directed by Swift and featuring Johnson, as well as Colin Farrell, the music video takes the viewer on a journey of Johnson and Farrell’s relationship, accompanied by the ghost of Swift, Farrell’s former lover in the video.
Taking home her third award of the night, this time for Best Dance, was again Madonna. Madonna brought back the award’s presenters, icons of dance music Charli xcx and Troye Sivan, during her speech, saying, “I feel good surrounded by people who like to dance.”
Taking the audience through the glorious hits of the late George Michael was Sombr, RAYE, Teddy Swims and Adam Lambert. Sombr sported one of Michael’s own leather jackets during the performance.
The penultimate award of Best New Artist, which had been narrowed down to a battle between three artists throughout the night, went to a shocked Sienna Spiro. The tearful “Great Expectation” singer thanked her fans for the award that she “did not think (would) happen.”
The final and biggest award of the night went the same way it has five times before, to Taylor Swift. Swift extends her lead in Video of the Year wins to four, with no other artist having more than two wins.
Combined with her non-televised wins, Madonna dominated the night, taking home seven Moon Person trophies. Swift officially surpasses Beyoncé as the holder of the most VMAs of all time, with 33 career wins.
