September 14, 2009

I watched the MTV Video Music Awards last night, and it was quite an eventful evening. It’s hard to believe the VMA’s have been around for 25 years now…I can still remember being 11 years old and watching Madonna perform Like A Virgin at the first awards ceremony and thinking “This is way better than the Grammys”. And to be fair, if you see Madonna rolling around the stage like that when you’re 11 years old, it’s going to be your new favourite awards show, too.
Madonna opened the show with a tribute to Michael Jackson. As a kid, I was a big Michael Jackson fan, and I was shocked to hear the news of his death in June (although I was trapped in a plane in Colorado Springs, so that made it significantly less dramatic at the time). I’ve tried to not address the Michael Jackson death/rumours/allegations topic on the blog because I’m not fully sure how I feel about it all. I will say, however, that while I can’t decide if I agree with what she said, Madonna’s tribute was very well-written, well-spoken, and poignant. The dance number that followed was enjoyable to watch, because it brought me back to a time when Michael Jackson was just a musician, and he truly was amazing. I did enjoy watching Janet Jackson perform…I mean lip-sync…Scream with the video wall of Michael at the same time. There was a great camera shot of Janet on the stage, and Michael on the screen over her right shoulder…both dancing it unison. It was a good moment.

Russell Brand is a good host for the show, but it sure would be interesting to hear what he would say if he could say whatever he wanted, don’t you think? His introduction put me off a bit, but only because of Joe Perry. I’m all for the splendour of a rocking version of We Will Rock You as an introduction, and I don’t even mind that they got Katy Perry to sing it…but if you need someone to play the guitar, why was it Joe Perry? Why not get Brian May to perform his own song? I was not a fan of MTV Aerosmith-izing a Queen song.
Lady Gaga certainly has a flair for the dramatic, doesn’t she? Independent of her theatrical performance of Paparazzi, which saw her ending up covered in blood and hanging lifeless on the stage (???), her outfits alone were enough to make me shake my head.
They sure made a big deal out of Muse’s performance as well. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a big Muse fan, and I’ve been waiting patiently for the new album (which is out tomorrow), but they built it up as this big “Introduction to America”, which I think is great. The new single was fantastic, and I hope all the hype around them will make them as big in North America as they deserve to be.

The funniest moment of the night was when Megan Fox and Adam Brody (or as 99% of men referred to him, “some random guy standing next to Megan Fox”) came out to introduce Green Day. First of all, Megan Fox looked so confused, and didn’t know when to start talking, until Brody leaned in to her and said “Just start talking”. THEN, as she’s reading her lines off of the teleprompter, Brody is standing beside her mouthing the words as she’s saying them and he’s reading along. Are you serious? This guy is supposed to be a professional actor! To be fair, The O.C. and Jennifer’s Body aren’t going to qualify anyone to sit across from James Lipton on Inside The Actor’s Studio, but you can’t have someone else say their lines without you moving your lips? Come on!
One of my favourite things about awards shows is the unexpected winner, and the complete and total shock you see from them when they had no idea that they could possibly win their award. Last night it was Taylor Swift, and while I’m not a country music fan in any way, it was nice to see how shocked and surprised she was, and how genuine she was when she began her speech. But then Kanye West decided to be the complete and total douchebag we all know he is, and jump on stage and interrupt her to declare that Beyoncé deserved the award. That was one of the most classless things I’ve ever seen. I know he has a history of doing crap like that, but it’s one thing to do it when you feel that you have been wronged (still 100% wrong), but even worse when you take up the cause for someone else like that. Did you see the look on Beyoncé’s face when he did that? She was embarrassed, for him, for her, for Taylor Swift.

When it came time for Beyoncé to give her acceptance speech at the end of the night for her award, I thought it was one of the classiest things I’ve ever seen when she asked Taylor Swift to come out on the stage and “have her moment” and complete her speech. Great to see the audience react the way they did, as well. A good turnaround to redeem a horrible situation.
Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable show…maybe a little over-the-top on the “We Love Michael Jackson” front, but musically speaking, he did deserve something on a grand scale for the career he had.

Did you watch? What did you think? Is Lady Gaga just a flash in the pan…or the new Madonna? What would you have done if you were Taylor Swift? Let me know in the Comments section.