You didn’t miss much, but you missed quite a bit.
Let me explain.
The expectation of this year’s MTV Video Music Awards was pretty high, as they tried to do it big and actually have a host. The past two years the VMAs opted out of a one-man show and just had special guests and appearances run the program.
This year, MTV thought it would be an awesome idea to bring in good-girl-turned-bad, Miley Cyrus.
Great idea, huge mistake.
I’m not sure if it was her dry comedy or tedious enthusiasm that just made the award show feel dragged out, but it was not a good hosting gig for her. Nevertheless, the show did have some major moments and performances.
Taylor Swift won Video of the Year for her song “Bad Blood,” Tori Kelly absolutely shut it down with her performance of “Should’ve Been Us,” and oh yeah — Kanye West is running for president in 2020.
West was presented with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, which is to highlight his career as an entertainer, and boy, was it interesting. He got on stage, admitted he smoked a bit prior to his appearance and incoherently rambled for a while.
Underneath the facade, if you caught the gist of what West was getting at, you would actually be impressed. Of course, his delivery was a bit off, but it was inspiring to say the least. His message to others basically was to follow your heart and not to let others define your success or hold you back from reaching your dreams.
And of course, this wouldn’t be an MTV award show without drama.
Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift seemed to patch things up after their Twitter beef a few weeks ago about the nominees for Video of the Year. The two actually took the stage together as part of one of the opening act for the night. It was a Kodak moment.
On the other hand, Cyrus found herself on Minaj’s bad side after calling her out. Upon receiving Best Hip-Hop Video award, Minaj said, “And now ... back to this bitch that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press. Miley, what’s good?” And cue ratings.
Regardless of the drama that unfolded, the VMAs were pretty mediocre. There were some good performances by The Weeknd and Demi Lovato, yet, I didn’t feel that excitement of the typical award show. It’ll be interesting to see if they will return to the absentee host next year.
That may have been a better option for them.
Stay tuned.
Kennedy Coopwood
