Amy Perez
Copy Editor
The VMA’s started with a video, as would be expected from a Video Music Awards show. A larger than life video of Madonna caressing her body was projected onto the screens. The cameras panned into a smokey filled slow motion dance scene on the stage to one wild live performance to open the show.
It didn’t stay in slow motion for long though, as the dancers sped up with Madonna as she made her way across the stage until her partner in crime Sabrina Carpenter joined her while singing in unison for this juicy number “Bring Your Love.”
The dance party mellowed out at minute 3:55 of Madona’s performance when a choir dressed in all white was revealed to the audience as they started singing “I Did It All For Love” as a transition into her the song with Charlie XCX. Personally, I believe that it was a highlight of the performance.
Snoop Dog as host was probably one of the best decisions they made. Surprisingly, he was quite tame during this award show after his opening joke where he asked the audience to look under their seats for a surprise, but nothing was found because he hadn’t actually left anything for them.
The first major award for the evening was for Best Pop. Teyana Taylor lost it while announcing Lisa as the winner for the category. Surprised for the win, Lisa delivered a sweet and simple thank you speech. Her ensemble was all black with arms fashioned like the color and shape of chicken feathers. Her performance later in the show had the whole entire crowd singing along.
Let us thank Raye for her remarkable gifts and beauty as she made her VMA debut performance. This artist was all about comfortability as she performed barefoot on stage in all red lace, belting out her powerhouse vocals to “I Will Overcome” with a string section surrounding her. Soon enough, trumpets were blaring as she quickly transitioned into her energetic hit “Where Is My Husband.” Raye never disappoints.
Bruno Mars was watched by the crowd in a pre-recorded performance with his guitar in an all-white bedazzled suit singing “Dance With Me” from his new album “The Romantic.” I lived for the guitar solo.
It wouldn’t be an awards show without a tribute to one of the biggest and most iconic stars. Archival footage of Dolly Parton introducing her song “I Will Always Love You” during one of her older performances was shown to open this part of the show. The lights shined bright on Kacey Musgraves with her soft vocals performing a simple and moving rendition of the song while only accompanied by a piano.
Before Shaboozey and Gunna took over the stage with their wild west theme for their energetic performance of the songs “Cowgirl” and High Noon,” Snoop reminded us that how music brings everyone together as one.
Madonna made a comeback in music with three wins, one for Artist of the Year, the other for Best Collaboration for her song’s “Bring Your Love” with Sabrina Carpenter. The last one was for Best Dance for “Confessions to the Film part 2.” Her message to the fans from “Bring Your Love” was that sometimes people believe they know you better than you know yourself and you need to make sure to let them know that they don’t.
One of the most coveted awards of the VMA’s was introduced by Chuck D and awarded to Nirvana for their originality and way of standing out. Now, there is a band from the 90‘s that deserved their flowers.
The video played represented the true artistry of the musicians of this band as pure nostalgia creeped in watching the remaining members of the band walk on stage to pay tribute to their former bandmate, Kurt Cobain, appreciating his genius.
One unique performance of the evening was by Best New Artist winner, singer and songwriter Sienna Spiro. The stage was designed to look like a vinyl record player as she stood atop of it to perform “Great Expectations” with a vibe and style that matched its vintage set. Her raspy, soft vocal were a nice shift in energy.
A handful of artists took the stage for George Michael’s Celebration of Music. Flashy and bright, the performances by artists like Teddy Swims, MNEK, Sombr, Adam Lambert and Meek were subpar apart from the song “Freedom.”
One odd and the least enjoyable part of the show was Gener8ion and Young Lee’s performance of their song “Storm.” It was just as the video with him standing in the middle of a group of male dancers dressed in school uniforms. He is watched eating ice cream the whole time before deciding to mush it into one of the cameras at the performances’ end. It honestly just seemed like he did not even care to be there which made me wonder, why he was one of the evening’s performers.
No award show ends without some appearance or wins by Pop icon Taylor Swift. She was honored this year with the first ever Artist Director Award. Kudos to her and all of her hard work though years with the making of six music videos, 18 in which of them she wrote and directed herself.
She ended with sharing her world premiere of her “Patient Zero” music video. It was a nice spin to the evening’s events and definitely one for the books, staring Dakota Johnson and Collin Ferrel.
The song itself was a solid hit, as it told the perfect broken story of another toxic relationship. Swift left with more than that award though, she also won Video of the Year for “Ophelia” which she dedicated with gratitude to Dolly Parton.
Some major take aways from this year’s VMA’s its close were to show love, spread love and give love as Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” played in the background.