Sunday night marked what some might consider the biggest night of the year for many celebrities - or at least the younger generation of them. Two nights ago MTV celebrated the 27th Video Music Awards (or what we commonly refer to as the VMAs) in Los Angeles’ Nokia Theater. The show was hosted by loud-mouthed and no-holds-barred television personality Chelsea Handler who is infamous for making fun of celebrities on a nightly basis on her E! Network show Chelsea Lately. She’s also the first woman in 16 years to host the VMAs after Rosanne Barr’s hosting gig in 1992. And it was almost as though Handler was born for this job. She knew exactly who to make fun of and when not to shut up. She came out in a “Bad Romance” inspired performance wearing a two-story house on her head. She encouraged “everyone to be on their worst behavior” so she’d still have a job. She even joked about last year’s fiasco between Kanye West and Taylor Swift directing the problem head-on in stating, “It’s time to address the big black elephant in the room; where’s Kanye?” In the opening “ass-slapping” sketch with Lil Jon, Rick Ross and Flo Rida she even had a face-to-face conversation with the one who is quite possibly the target of a vast majority of her ridicule: none other than Lindsay Lohan. Her surprise appearance got a ton of laughs asking Handler if she thought “anyone wants to work with a drunk, take it from [her], they don’t.”
But then we got into the nitty gritty of the night: the awards and performances. The bar was definitely set high during the pre-show from a special performance by Nicki Minaj and will.i.am during the pre-show, doing her song “Your Love” and their collaboration of “Check It Out” from her upcoming album. During the pre-show two awards were also given out and they both went to Lady GaGa. The first was for Best Dance Video for “Bad Romance.” The other award was presented to Lady GaGa for Best Collaboration for her song “Telephone” with Beyoncé;.
2010 Best Dance Video - Nominees:
2010 Best Collaboration - Nominees:
Then it was on with the real show. Eminem was scheduled to open and boy did he do so with a bang. Things start off with him standing on a small stage performing to maybe 50 people in a very intimate performance in a small venue. His opening song is no surprise being “Not Afraid.” During the small performance, he kept looking down as though he didn’t know the lyrics to his smash hit yet, and he was reading the teleprompter. I hope that’s not the case, but it’s what it looked like. Then the back wall drops out of the small venue and opens up into the massive stage that is the main stage of the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Eminem rocks the house with “Not Afraid,” but it’s not quite as energy-filled as the surprise appearance by Rihanna for their duet of “Love The Way You Lie.” No one knew she was making an appearance and it was the first time the two had performed the song live and what seemed to be quite an emotional experience for Rihanna.
Ellen DeGeneres comes on stage to present the award for Best Female Video. She mentions a quality about each of the nominees and wraps it up with a comment of “enough about me.” Lady GaGa wins her third award of the night for her smash hit “Bad Romance” which is no surprise. During her award acceptance speech she states “Tonight, little monsters, we’re the cool kids at the party,” solidifying the fact that she is the artist who single-handedly appreciates her fans more than any other artist. She thanks her beloved, yet now-deceased, designer and personal friend Alexander McQueen and über-producer RedOne for producing her album before leaving the stage in joy.
2010 Best Female Video - Nominees:
Chelsea comes back for her Best New Artist meet-and-greet. In the first installment, she meets Ke$ha where we get to see Chelsea’s sarcastic side. She tells Ke$ha that if she ever reaches a point that it becomes too much, then “you need to call me, ‘cause I would love to party with you.” Ke$ha seems to dig the idea and pulls out a Sharpie marker and corrects the HOST written on Chelsea’s nametag to HO$T as it clearly should be stylized.
Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O and the rest of the Jackass 3D cast come on stage to present the award for Best Rock Video. But first we get to see a preview clip from the third installment of the franchise and what could be the funniest stunt they have ever pulled. Poor Bam.
2010 Best Rock Video - Nominees:
Kim Kardashian is next in one of the most awkward introductions of the night. She basically admits that she is really crazy and has a restraining order against her by Justin Bieber - who she’s introducing for his appearance. It’s obviously fake and it’s obviously a prerecorded bit. So in reality she’s not a meer 51 feet away from Justin, but rather a week in advance and most likely at least a couple hundred miles from Justin. Either way, she introduces him where he is showing up for his performance which may or may not have been prerecorded - I’m thinking yes, but I don’t know. He shows up to the Nokia Theater in a vintage fire-engine red convertible where he hops out and takes to the outdoor stage giving an a capella intro of “U Smile” before switching to a full Ludacris-free version of “Baby.” I don’t have Bieber Fever but I don’t hate the kid and even I have to admit that the choreography was pretty good for his performance of “Baby” which was followed immediately after by “Somebody To Love” before he wrapped it all up with a drum solo.
MTV sure kept things moving on Sunday, after Justin Bieber’s performance and a very MTV-like lengthy commercial break, Ke$ha and Trey Songz take the stage to introduce the next performer: none other than the VMA veteran himself: Usher. He takes the stage with “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” much like his laser-show-inspired concert performances the performance keeps the energy of Eminem’s performance if not surpassing it. And if the lighting effects aren’t enough, tap on Usher’s dance moves and a quick switch to “OMG” but without will.i.am, it makes for one hell of a performance. But I must admit that it’s fairly awkward that “OMG” was done without will.i.am considering he did a performance during the preshow with Nicki Minaj and could have easily done this one as well.
Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj take the stage to introduce the award for Best Male Video. The two converse about how Katy met her fiancé Russell Brand at last year’s VMAs. Nicki says she’s just looking for some fun and is actually interested in 5 men, not just one. They play the tape for the nominees before Nicki announces the winner in the infamous and spot-on British accent Jay Sean joked about during the preshow. Nicki Minaj must accept the award on Eminem’s behalf.
2010 Best Male Video - Nominees:
We get back from the commercial break to the house artist and quite the DJ deadma5 performing his song “Ghosts N Stuff” segueing into the next sketch. It’s another Handler meet-and-greet but this time with both Ke$ha and Jason Derülo. Chelsea introduces herself to Jason in an autotune much like how he says his name in his songs. Chelsea says her own name in autotune before awkwardly offering Ke$ha an autotuned cinnamon bagel. And then it’s another performance, yet this time it’s from one of the lesser-known acts. Ashley Greene of Twilight and Jared Leto of 30 Seconds to Mars introduce that act that I’m sure you’ve heard the song even if you didn’t know what it was called or who sang it. Solving that problem here: Florence + the Machine put her immensely visual and colorful music video into a live stage performance and it seemed to work out quite well compared the video. Despite that fact and even the fact that I quite like the song, it was probably one of the most boring moments of the night.
After Florence + the Machine finishes “Dog Days Are Over,” we get this really awkward mini performance from Travie McCoy doing his song “Billionaire.” I’m still not exactly sure what the point was of a 35 second performance from an artist who isn’t even nominated for a VMA this year but from what I would guess, it’s that they weren’t really all that sure how well deadma5 would go over with the crowd and the public so they booked these mini performances that just fail, in all honestly.
The cast of Glee (including: Jane Lynch, Chris Colfer, Amber Riley, & Cory Monteith) relate themselves to the nominees for Best Pop Video before they very excitedly introduce the winner of Best Pop Video to Lady GaGa for “Bad Romance,” who responds enthusiastically by screaming into the microphone and stating that her and all her “monsters are the cool kids at the party.” She also gives one of the most quotable statements of the night: “God bless pop music and God bless MTV.”
2010 Best Pop Video - Nominees:
Then stars of the upcoming film Unstoppable, Rosario Dawson and Chris Pine take the stage to introduce Taylor Swift who performed a song off her upcoming album Speak Now that has never been performed live let alone been heard by the public audience. It’s a very intimate performance that has Taylor going barefoot. Given the stigma this girl has to have about the VMAs in the back of her head, the song - called “Innocent” - and the performance were beautiful and very fitting giving the fiasco last year. But I must admit that being a Taylor Swift fan, the hair, makeup and wardrobe department was kind of lacking for this performance. I get that she was going for a retro-styled and more mature - despite the song title - direction but it just didn’t completely work in my opinion.
Then we get another Handler meet-and-greet but this one is actually pretty damn funny. It’s with Justin Bieber this time and she walks up to him and blatantly asks to see his wig. Not knowing what to do, he doesn’t really do much where she responds that she knows “a piece when she sees one,” while she’s trying to rip his “wig” from his head. Insisting that it’s his real hair and not a toupee, Justin runs away with Chelsea running after him in an attempt to prove it.
Then going straight into another performance, from the upcoming movie The Social Network Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake take the stage in order to introduce Drake’s first VMA performance ever. He’s doing a little-known song - which will probably end up being his next single in all honesty - called “Fancy” that features Mary J. Blige and Swizz Beatz. Drake is another performer that can really get the crowd’s energy up and then keep it there. And in this performance, Drake goes above and beyond. For a half white Jewish Canadian with the first name Audrey, the kid can rap on par with the best of the best which is saying something considering his first album dropped in 2009.
Then Evan Rachel Wood and Joe Manganiello from True Blood take the stage to present the awards that have to be given away because .. well they do, even if no one cares.
2010 Best Choreography
2010 Best Direction
2010 Best Editing
2010 Best Special Effects
2010 Best Art Direction
2010 Best Cinematography
Jason Derülo takes the stage for another awkward mini performance of “Ridin’ Solo,” which is when the cast ofJersey Shore (including: Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Paul “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio) is on the stage in a jacuzzi and inevitably convince Chelsea Handler to jump in with them: dress and heals and all. While in the hot tub, Handler introduces the next presenter: Modern Family’s Sofia Vergara who takes the stage to introduce the award for Best Hip-Hop video. Vergara jokes that she doesn’t know why but she had a lot of men hit on her and that she got to turn it back on them. Sofia Vergara must accept this award on Eminem’s behalf.
2010 Best Hip-Hop Video - Nominees:
Chelsea gets out of the hot tub completely soaking wet and is wearing a baby bump over her dress clearly implying that the water in the hot tub got her pregnant. Which is when Selena Gomez and Ne-Yo take the stage to introduce the next performance, which is what I think is the most impressive and most interesting performance of the night. It’s a mash-up that starts with Bruno Mars seated at the piano for “Nothin’ On You” so when B.o.B.’s part comes out, he starts, doesn’t finish and segues to his song “Airplanes” and when Hayley Williams of Paramore’s part comes up, she starts, doesn’t finish and segues to Paramore’s song “The Only Exception.” It really shows the degrees of separation and how lines between genres have become blurred lately. I absolutely loved the mash-up.
And for our third mini-performance we get someone I’ve never heard of singing a song I’ve never heard. Tell me if you know it. Robyn gives us a sample of her song “Dancing On My Own.”
Then Romeo, from the group Adventura - winner of MTV TR3S’ Artist of the Year - and from Victorious, Victoria Justice take the stage to present the award for Best New Artist. It’s no surprise that Justin Bieber wins the category despite stiff competition from Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj. Like I’ve said, I don’t hate the kid but I sure as hell don’t have Bieber Fever. So congratulations to him, but my vote lies in Nicki Minaj.
2010 Best New Artist - Nominees:
Emma Stone and Penn Badgley from the upcoming movie, Easy A introduce a come-back performance from Linkin Park which has been named a number 1 single “The Catalyst.” Penn doesn’t actually say anything so it’s really awkward considering he’s got a movie career and is one of the main characters on one of televisions best dramas, Gossip Girl. Linkin Park never disappoints and they are one of the few acts in their genre that can actually perform live and have it sound not just decent but really well. Congrats to them for being and staying around for so long. I hope they keep it up.
From the upcoming movie, Burlesque, pop-icon Cher appears on stage in her 80’s garb to her song “Turn Back Time,” in order to present the award for Video of the Year to none other than another pop-icon: Lady GaGa. The category has six nominees this year, two of which were for Lady GaGa, but it’s her song “Bad Romance” that takes the cake. She is an artist that truly adores her fans and recognizes that without them, her own dreams would never have come true. She’s also an artist that sticks with her promises and before these VMAs, if she won the VMA for Video of the Year, she would announce the name of her next album. But not only does she mention that it’s “Born This Way,” but she previews her track of the same name giving us a few amazing bars.
2010 Video of the Year - Nominees:
And then it’s time for the closing performance. The absolutely lame Aziz Ansari introduces Kanye West to perform. Having Kanye close the VMAs with a performance is somewhat of a tradition now and what is even more of a tradition is the fact that this is the second time in three years that Kanye West has debuted a song at the VMAs. His first was in 2008 where he debuted “Love Lockdown” and continues the tradition in 2010 with his next song featuring Pusha T called “Runaway.” In somewhat of a stab-in-the-heart and touché to his Twitter apology to Taylor Swift about his actions last year and seems to show that Kanye really doesn’t mean his apology and could really care less. With a chorus saying: “Let’s have a toast for the douche bags, let’s have a toast for the assholes, Let’s have a toast for the scumbags, everyone of them that I know, Let’s have a toast for the jerkoffs that’ll never take work off, baby I’ve got a plan: runaway as fast as you can.” we can only imagine what he’s really thinking of Taylor Swift’s VMA for Best Female Video of 2009.
