Artists such as Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift stole the show with drama and acceptance speeches.
The 2015 MTV Video Music Awards had a whole lot going on this year, to say the least.
Miley Cyrus hosted the psychedelic award show that left viewers feeling about 50 different emotions at the same time. It took me some time to truly gather my feelings after the event in order to process exactly what was even going on.
Nicki Minaj started the night with a performance of “Trini Dem Girls” and
“The Night is Still Young” in which Taylor Swift herself joined her on stage. The hearts of pop fans everywhere were warmed as the two publicly ended their previous Twitter feud regarding the awards with this friendly performance. It ended with the two singing the chorus from “Bad Blood,” which I found so “punny” that I actually laughed out loud.
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Miley literally slid into the award show on a psychedelic rainbow thing in the sequins power suit of my dreams. She cracked a few jokes about her past performances at the VMAs and proceeded to take an Ellen-esque selfie in which Kim Kardashian — being the selfie queen she is — scurried her way in the back of the picture.
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Britney Spears proceeded to look amazing in a nude cut out dress and presented the Best Male Video to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars for “Uptown Funk.”
Jared Leto, adorned with sunglasses and pink hair, announced The Weeknd’s performance. He sang “Can’t Feel My Face” and showed off some very smooth dance moves. Kanye West thoroughly enjoyed the performance as he danced in the crowd. The choreography combined with the spontaneous flame show provided an overall performance that actually made me say “woah.”
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After a brief commercial break (not really), Rebel Wilson appeared onstage dressed like a cop. This appearance was the beginning of a very confusing segment of the show. Rebel said a few words and then stripped out of the cop outfit into her underwear and a t-shirt that reads, “F--k the Stripper Police.” She then proceeded to announce the Best Hip-Hop Video award, in which Nicki Minaj won for her “Anaconda” video. Nicki could not make it up the stage in her tight dress and Rebel Wilson had to assist her, which led to some light twerking between the two. Then, in Nicki’s acceptance speech, she called out Miley for calling her rude in the press. Miley and Nicki exchange a few argumentative words, and we cut to commercials feeling very confused on if that actually happened.
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After the break, Big Sean and Nick Jonas announced that Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” is the Best Female Video. We saw Kanye crack a smile in the crowd, for Taylor beat Beyoncé for this award (again), and we all know what that means.
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Following a colorful performance by Demi Lovato and Iggy Azalea, Justin Bieber took over the VMA stage for the first time in five years. He showed some SERIOUS dance moves, (everyone saw him whip right?) and began to FLOAT IN MID AIR on a harness. At the end of his performance, JBiebs became very emotional, crying on stage, because he let the world know that he’s back with better hair than ever.
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A few more awards and performances were shown, when finally none other than Taylor Swift herself presented Kanye with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. Taylor recalled her first time meeting Kanye on the VMA stage, when he interrupted her speech in 2009, but it was all in good humor.
Once her good friend Kanye West hit the stage, the crowd cheered for what seemed like forever. Yeezy finally spoke once the crowd settled down. He recalled when he interrupted Taylor’s speech at the VMAs six years ago, and said how he probably would’ve handled the situation differently if he had a daughter then. He then became emotional about the subject of award shows by calling out MTV for using artists to get ratings and basically just saying he doesn’t “get” award shows. He kept yelling the words “Bro” and “Listen to the kids!” all while admitting he did drugs before the show. He ended his speech by saying he will run for president in 2020 and literally dropped the mic.
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Following Kanye’s 13-minute speech, Pharrell Williams performed “Freedom” and Fetty Wap won Best New Artist, allowing the audience to take a break from the previous dramatic events. Twenty One Pilots and A$AP Rocky then collaborated in a high energy performance with lots of drums that kind of left me feeling stressed out.
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After I took a few deep breaths, Ice Cube and his son, O'Shea Jackson Jr., presented Taylor Swift with the video of the year award for her “Bad Blood” music video. Taylor was overjoyed and brought her squad on stage to thank them all. In the words of TSwift herself, “I’m just glad we live in a world where boys can be princesses and girls can be soldiers.” Me too Taylor, me too.
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Miley Cyrus shocked the nation yet again by performing a never before heard song about weed, peace and everything Miley. The performance was a musical version of what Miley’s Instagram has looked like over the past year or so. Finally, once I thought the entire roller coaster of a night was over, Miley dropped her album for free online right then and there. Like, what?
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I think within the two and a half hours of the award show, I lost roughly a dozen Twitter followers from live-tweeting my ever-changing emotions about the show every 30 seconds and bit off all of my fingernails. I am so excited for next year.
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And the winners are...
Best Rock Video: Fall Out Boy, "Uma Thurman"
Best Pop Video: Taylor Swift, "Blank Space"
Best Male Video: Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars, "Uptown Funk"
Best Hip-Hop Video: Nicki Minaj, "Anaconda"
Best Female Video: Taylor Swift, "Blank Space"
Best Video With a Social Message: Big Sean featuring Kanye West & John Legend, "One Man Can Change the World"
Song of the Summer: 5 Seconds of Summer, "She's Kinda Hot"
Best Collaboration: Taylor Swift ft. Kendrick Lamar, "Bad Blood"
Best Direction: Kendrick Lamar, "Alright" (Colin Tilley & the Little Homies)
Best Choreography: OK Go, "I Won’t Let You Down" (OK Go, air:man and Mori Harano)
Best Cinematography: Flying Lotus feat. Kendrick Lamar, "Never Catch Me" (Larkin Sieple)
Best Art Direction: Snoop Dogg, "So Many Pros" (François Rousselet, Jason Fijal)
Best Editing: Beyoncé, "7/11" (Beyoncé, Ed Burke, Jonathan Wing)
Best Visual Effects: Skrillex and Diplo feat. Justin Bieber, "Where Are U Now" (Brewer, Gloria FX, and Max Chyzhevskyy)
Artist to Watch: Fetty Wap
Video of the Year: Taylor Swift featuring Kendrick Lamar, "Bad Blood"
