This year’s award show was very good and I’m glad because MTV had a few years when the show was less than average. Especially considering the fact – there was no main host carrying the show.
Key and Peele tried holding things down with their social media jokes, along with Jay Pharoah‘s impersonations, and DJ Khaled‘s hype fest introductions all night long. But here’s a quick wrap-up of what was hot – and not so hot at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards 2016.
Cold: Rihanna’s VMA Opening “Don’t Stop The Music”, “Only Girl (In The World)”, “We Found Love” and “Where have you been”
The Barbados queen Rihanna opened the MTV Video Music Awards 2016 using a pink theme all over the stage. Rihanna wore red sunglasses, a red and pink t-shirt, and pink pants. The singer performed a medley of her club hits like “Don’t Stop The Music”, “Only Girl (In The World)”, “We Found Love” and “Where have you been”. Nothing stood out to me on this one. It’s not the best opening I’ve seen at the VMA’s and it’s a good thing it’s not her only performance tonight.
Cold: Arianna Grande & Nicki Minaj “Side By Side”.
Is Ariana Grande singing on a spin bike? okay. I have to give her props for working out and singing at the same time. After dismounting the spin bike, with a little assistance from a group of muscle men wearing pink workout leotards. Grande prances around while the men do reps with weights.
Eventually, Nicki Minaj comes out with an uninspired entrance and performance. You can barely hear her thanks to the soundman, not to mention she seemed uninterested in being there, let alone performing tonight.
(Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Hot: Future “F*ck Up Some Commas”
A Rock inspired performance that went hard. The guitars cranked and moved the audience as Future and his crew ran around the stage dancing in red and burgundy leather outfits. If you like this song it’s worth listening to this live version.
Hot: Kanye West (Speech) & “Fade” Music Video
Kanye appears in an all-white outfit – the shirt brandishing the words Famous on the front. Kanye then goes on a four-minute rant (probably longer) about any and everything on his mind. West even goes, as far as, mentioning his wife’s ex-boyfriend Ray J and his ex-girlfriend Amber Rose saying “I see you Amber” (who was sitting in the audience).
The Famous rapper talked about historical figures who are “artists merchants”.
I really didn’t understand the speech but was definitely drawn into the “larger than life” persona of Kanye West.
The premiere of the “Fade” music video from Kanye’s The Life Of Pablo album features a hot bodied Teyana Taylor doing a flash dance meets Janet Jackson’s pleasure principal vibe. This dance was sexy and shows off Taylors’ incredible body. Later on, an appearance from Iman Shumpert, Teyana’s fiance, and Cleveland Cavalier basketball player, appears in the shower with his woman on screen. Ultimately ending up, surrounded by a herd of sheep and a cat-faced Teyana Taylor resting on his back (homage to the stage play Cats maybe).
Hot: Rihanna With “Rude Boy”, “Whats My Name” “Work”.
Rihanna took us deep into the hottest Caribbean club with this performance reaching back to her roots in Barbados. She had a crowd of dancers as the backdrop doing Jamaican whining to a DJ mix of “Rude Boy”, “What’s My Name?” and “Work”. If you’re not dancing or bobbing your head, you might be dead.
Hot: Nick Jonas “Bacon” Ft. Ty Dolla $ign.
A microphone and bacon at the Tick Tok Diner made the scene for Nick Jonas. As the Jonas Brother walked through the diner (just like the music video), we got appearances from Nick Jonas and his new group DNCE, Ashley Graham (the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model), Odell Beckham Jr. from the New York Giants, all doing cameos throughout the restaurant.
As Nick makes his way outside the camera goes to rapper Ty Dolla $ign outside rapping his verse in between two bouncing cars.
This whole thing was fun to watch live since everything had to run smoothly all the way through on live TV.
Hot: Beyonce Lemonade
This was an amazing performance from Beyonce with so many visuals – it’s hard to count. Beyonce stole the show, giving the audience a taste of what to expect on her Formation World Tour.
The opening alone going into “Hold Up” was nice as her crew danced in a circle doing choreography reminiscent of the Carribean, which is real hot right now. The song ends with Beyonce cracking the camera with a baseball bat. Leading us into an another dramatic skit reminiscent of the scary part in the musical The Wiz – into “Sorry” then “Don’t Hurt Yourself” showing the perspective aggression of a scorned woman. Beyonce dances within a ring of fire as the words “God Is God, I Am Not” appears on the screen behind her.
The last song “Formation” ends with more great choreography and costumes – this performance may very well be the greatest VMA performance of all time.
Cold: Britney Spears “Make Me” Ft. G-Eazy.
Returning to the VMA’s after nine years, Britney Spears appeared in a yellow leotard with dancers wearing zebra print body suits.
The routine came off overly choreographed, especially after G-Eazy appeared and Britney went into a lip-syncing breakdown (missing words) and looking like an amateur trying to follow Beyonce’s stellar performance.
Clearly, Spears should have gone on before Beyonce and someone at MTV should wake up and realize – Beyonce is better than Britney and this is why Spears got smashed.
Britney Spears wasn’t terrible but she was forgettable.
Hot: Rihanna “Needed Me”, “Pour It Up” and “Bitch Better Have My Money”
Wearing all black singing “Needed Me”, “Pour It Up” and “Bitch Better Have My Money”. Rihanna was styling with the hard vibe stepping in all black with her dancers in tow. I liked how this performance was toned down a bit. Rihanna went off key a bit on “Needed Me” but recovered nicely.
Hot: The Chainsmokers and Halsey “Closer”
The Chainsmokers have the No. 1 song right now in the country with “Closer”. The EDM duo made up of Andrew Taggart & Alex Pall was nominated for their song featuring Daya “Don’t Let Me Down”. Tonight the duo plus one performed in front of Smoke and mountains in the back, keeping it real simple compared to everyone else on the show. Near the end of the song, Andrew Taggart slid his hand down Halsey‘s stomach getting closer (pun intended).
Hot: Rihanna’s Vanguard Award, “Stay”, “Diamonds” and “Love On The Brain”.
The final performance of the night was introduced by Mary J. Blige. Rihanna wore a trench coat dress that looked great on her as she sang “Stay”, “Diamonds” and “Love On The Brain”. Rihanna stood at the mic and sang better than we’ve ever heard her sing. This flowed perfectly into Rihanna’s acceptance of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award presented to her by Drake.
Summing-Up
Overall the show was surprisingly great. The elaborate performances, the costumes, and sets were very impressive. Also, this year’s show gave a lot of attention to Hip-hop and Pop music – in the past, the show seemed to ignore Hip-hop. This may be changing with Futures Rock Esq performance.
This year’s VMA’s brought something a little different and I look forward to seeing what they do with next years show.
