Year of Lemonade

 

Beyonce simply proved why she is Queen Bey: The 34-year-old gave a stunning 16-minute instant-hit performance — at New York’s Madison Square Garden — which was introduced by gal-pal Serena Williams. Hitting it off with Pray You Catch Me in which the dancers fell down on clouds of red as if they were shot, she moved on to a medley of Hold Up, Countdown, Sorry, Don’t Hurt Yourself and a brilliant rendition of Formation. Earlier in the day, she introduced her guests on the red carpet — the mothers of the four unarmed black men who have been killed in the US in the last few years. They have also been featured on Bey’s visual album, Lemonade.

 

And all this led to the Queen taking home eight Moonmans (she had 11 nominations), including Best Female Video (which she received from Team USA’s gold medallist gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Madison Kocian and Laurie Hernandez) and Video Of The Year (given away by Jimmy Fallon).

 

Four performances & oh-love

 

Rihanna is not known to perform a career-retrospective medley. But then again, anything can happen at VMA! The Barbadian pop singer performed four (yes, FOUR!) separate medleys celebrating various genres throughout the show. She opened the evening with a beat-heavy catalogue — Don’t Stop The Music and Only Girl In The World, followed by sections of We Found Love and Where Have You Been. The second segment took her back to Caribbean music — Rude Boy and What’s My Name? which segued into her smash Work. Now, the third segment. There was Needed Me, Pour It Up and B**ch Better Have My Money. But the high point in this segment was the camera pointing to a smiling Kanye West, who helped produce the last single. RiRi’s final sequence was about knockout ballads (Stay, Diamonds and Love On The Brain), which gave way to the moment she was waiting for.

 

Drake arrived in a dapper tuxedo to sing his boo’s praises. After calling her an “iconic being” and praising her music, he said: “She’s someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22 years old. She’s one of my best friends in the world. All my adult life, I’ve looked up to her.” And then, and then, and then… he gave her the highest VMA award, the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Moonman. “My success started as my dream but now my success is not my own. It’s my family’s, it's my fans’, it’s my country’s, it’s the Caribbean’s as a whole, it’s women’s, it’s black women’s,” Rihanna said.

 

X-rated gym class

 

Ariana Grande’s latest album is Dangerous Woman. So she decided to up the danger factor by involving Nicki Minaj during a live performance of Side By Side. Grande started her show on an exercise bike with a few cyclists flanking her and then she moved to a pommel horse. This is where Nicki came in with an entourage of weightlifters to give VMA this year’s eye-popping moment: Nicki (far right) and Ariana pushed down the heads of two male dancers while simulating a sexual act! Even Kim Kardashian didn’t know how to react. She was captured on camera telling either Kanye West or reality star Jonathan Cheban (who were sitting next to her): “Should we stand up?” Er, stand up and do what, KK?

 

The WTF speech

 

MTV had promised Kanye West four minutes of say-anything. And he obviously didn’t disappoint with his five-pronged speech….

1. He talked Tay: Yes, the Taylor Swift whose naked wax figure was a part of Kanye’s famous video, Famous. Kanye has always maintained that he took Taylor’s permission before singing “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/ Why? I made that bitch famous” and his wife Kim K even Snapchatted the video of her giving permission in July. West defended himself again at the VMA: “You know, like people come up to me like man that’s right take Taylor down — bro, I love all of y’all. That’s why I called her.”

2. He Trumped Trump: The 39-year-old rapper addressed the idea of placing a naked wax figure of Anna Wintour next to Donald Trump’s in Famous: “The audacity to put Anna Wintour next to Donald Trump. I put Ray J in it bro. This is fame, bro.... We came over in the same boat, now we all in the same bed.”

3. He became his role model: The rapper called out the people he looks up to — “I sit down and talk to older rich people, you know, aka white. They tell me don’t compare yourself to Steve Jobs…. My role models are artistes merchants, less than 10 that I can name in history: Truman, Ford, Hughes, Disney, Jobs, West.”

4. He gave a shout out: To his ex, Amber Rose (and member of the naked brigade on Famous!), who was in the audience. Her reply? A smile and a shrug.

5. He faded into Fade: His new Flashdance-inspired video, Fade, featuring singer Teyana Taylor and her husband, the NBA player Iman Shumpert, was dropped (at the moment exclusive to Tidal).

Phelps’s death stare

 

The most decorated Olympian of all time Michael Phelps arrived with his fiancee Nicole Johnson. He was there to introduce rapper Future to the stage. But it was no ordinary welcome. He revealed he was listening to Future’s Stick Talk when he gave South African swimmer Chad le Clos the death stare before the 200 metre butterfly semi-final. “There’s no rapper today more inspiring than Future. His optimism is in his name. Remember in Rio when I made that face (above) that was all over the Internet? I was in my zone with Future’s Stick Talk.” #PhelpsFace

The snub-a-doo

 

When Alicia Keys announced the Best Male Video category, Kim K was hoping it would be her hubby. But one Mr Calvin Harris picked it up for This Is What You Came For (with Rihanna), the track Taylor Swift co-wrote under the pen name Nils Sjoberg during their 15-month relationship. Accepting the award in a pre-recorded video from Britain (where he is performing), he thanked RiRi — “Thanks, Rihanna, from the bottom of my heart. You’re a superstar.” But no Tay-Tay, who is apparently attending dance classes in New York, the very city where the VMA was held at Madison Square Garden! 

Sparkles fizzle out

 

 

Back at the VMA after nine years, Britney Spears enlisted rapper G-Eazy to help her perform Make Me, which is off her new album, Glory. Sparkly nude bodysuit, slinky moves but… twitterati weren’t happy: “Britney sang more during her ‘Carpool Karaoke’, and even THEN we got like three bars,” posted @XorjeO. Obviously, it was a tough day at office for Britney because Beyonce is always a tough act to follow!