By: Breanna Scharpnick
SC Staff Writer
The Video Music Awards (VMA) is an event that is anticipated by many. This annual occasion celebrates music’s popular artists and recognizes the hard work and dedication they put into their music. This two-hour program kicked off with a performance by Rihanna that really got the party started. Her upbeat music, provocative dance routine and interesting red outfit choice definitely caught the audience’s attention. The VMA’s featured a hilarious host, Kevin Heart who did not waste any time talking about topics, such as the Drake and Chris Brown drama, how Frank Ocean “came out of the closet,” Snooki’s baby, and how Kristen Stewart cheated on Robert Pattinson. It was evident there was no holding Kevin Heart back from expressing how he felt, but he successfully got the point across that “everybody makes mistakes.”
Katy Perry presented the first award of the evening, which was for Best Pop Video. The band One Direction won the award, which accidentally ended up falling apart as Perry congratulated each and every member. Kevin Heart then introduced Dwight Howard to the stage, who later gave Heart one of his LA Lakers basketball jerseys. The jersey was a couple sizes too big on Heart and looked like it could be a dress rather than a shirt. Miley Cyrus, rocking her new haircut, entered the stage accompanied by Mac Miller. They introduced Pink, performing her song, “Blow me one last kiss.” During her performance, the audience was holding red lips up in the air, while on stage dancers were in big lip costumes that shot confetti everywhere. The next award given out was for Best Male Video, presented by Demi Lovato and Rita Ora. The winner was Chris Brown who did not forget to thank “team breezy.”
The atmosphere continued as loud and crazy, but Frank Ocean took it down a notch while performing his song, “Thinkin’ Bout You.” This love song was slow paced, touching and moving. Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg came onto the stage next, expressing their hip-hop creativity, which lead to the next award for Best Hip Hop Video. Drake ft. Lil Wayne won and the entire crew of Young Money was there by his side while he accepted the award. The teenage heartthrob band One Direction performed next, singing their hit “One Thing.” When they won their first award of the evening, the band seemed extremely excited and overwhelmed being at the VMA’s. Their nerves were seen as they were up on stage singing—but ended up giving their fans an excellent performance.
The hilarious actress Rebel Wilson, who played Brynn in the movie Bridesmaids, walked down the steps accompanied by the band The Wanted. Wilson was wearing a shirt that looked as if she was wearing a bikini and was holding a bag of chips in front of her. When she removed the bag, she exposed some airbrush markings around the lower region of her bathing suit. The audience reacted with extreme laughter as Wilson acted as if nothing was wrong. The next award was for Best Female Video and the winner was Nicki Minaj. Extremely shocked and overwhelmed, she walked up to accept her award. Her yellow hair attracted much attention as well as her body suit outfit, which flashed red momentarily.
The next performance was by 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne. Even though this was 2 Chainz’s first time performing on the VMA stage, he gave an amazing performance. Lil Wayne is notorious for showing off his boxers and having his pants almost down to his knees while he performs. Besides the questionable clothing malfunction, the rappers performed a mix of two songs, “Yuck!” and “No Worries,” while 2 Chainz rode across the stage on Lil Wayne’s skateboard. The next band to perform has been around for quite some time: Green Day, known for giving outstanding performances. They did it once again at the 2012 VMA’s, singing their song “Let Yourself Go”.
Whenever an award show comes on, it seems it will be incomplete without mentioning the movie Twilight. When it was announced that the cast was going to show an exclusive clip from their next movie, curiosity set in as people wondered if every main cast member would be up on that stage. Without question, due to all of the negativity she must have received, Kristen Stewart did not make an appearance. A lot of credit can be given to Robert Pattinson for not only showing up to the VMA’s but also being able to stand up on stage in front of everyone and watch the clip.
Wiz Khalifa accompanied by Ke$ha, who seemed like she could barely stand up straight without clutching onto Wiz Khalifa, presented the next award for Best New Artist. This was One Direction’s second win of the night. The U.S. girl’s gymnastics team, better known as the “Fierce Five,” introduced Alicia Keys who performed a new song called, “Girl on Fire.” Nicki Minaj made an appearance as well as one of the gymnasts, Gabby Douglas, who did some tricks on stage and before walking off, gave Alicia Keys a high-five.
Host, Kevin Heart, presented the last award of the evening, which was for Video of the Year. Katy Perry, Rihanna, Drake, M.I.A, and Gotye were the artists competing for the title of Video of the Year. While the nominees were being announced, the cameramen took close-up shots of Rihanna and Katy Perry, since they were sitting next to each other. They were patting each other in anticipation for the winner. Kevin Heart enthusiastically announced that the winner was Rihanna for her video titled, “We Found Love.”
Kevin Heart made a couple of final words, letting the audience know that they have the power to vote and then introduced the final performance of the night, which was done by Taylor Swift. She sang her new hit song, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” The song was extremely catchy and enjoyable to watch, and it was a great way to end the 2012 Video Music Awards.
Email Breanne at:
bks2183@live.esu.edu