The VMAs premiered this year on Sunday at 9pm with a large portion of viewers holding their breath. After last year’s Kanye-Swift incident and Lady Gaga’s groundbreaking “Paparazzi” performance, this year’s show had a big pair of stilettos to fill.
The night began with an explosive performance of Eminem’s “Not Afraid”. The stage had a fantastic NYC motif with skyscrapers and street drummers. Rihanna also made a predictable surprise appearance for the “I Love the Way You Lie” duet.
The real fun began when host Chelsea Handler made her grand entrance, prior to a pep talk from Lindsay Lohan, in a Gaga-esque dress complete with an androgynous crew and model house on her head. She can make fun of Gaga all she wants, but “mama monster” dominated.
Lady Gaga received several awards during the pre-show and then took three major awards during the program including Best Pop Video, Best Dance Video, and the coveted Video of the Year award.
Although Gaga didn’t perform, she remained an entertaining sight with three costume changes, one of which was made entirely of beef. Luckily Cher was there to hold her meat purse when she received her last reward. Gaga gave a big teary thank you to her fans and then belted out a few lines from her new record, Born This Way.
Gaga’s wardrobe impressed Rachel Berbec, a freshman in Communication.
“Lady Gaga dazzled in her outfits,” Berbec said, “especially in the Alexander McQueen dress which was my favorite.”
Other favorites included Usher, Taylor Swift, and of course Justin Bieber who wowed us with a drum solo and took home the Best New Artist award.
Sarah Joyner, a sophomore in biochemistry, thought Bieber was the highlight of the show.
“Bieber’s performance was the best because it was his first time performing at the VMAs,” Joyner said, “and I thought he was really good for someone who is only 16.”
Even with an impressive line-up of artists, the VMAs this year seriously lacked variety. Last year’s stint left Sunday’s program with a heavy dose of nostalgia, especially with Kanye West and Taylor Swift both performing.
In her opening monologue, Handler addressed Kanye West as the “big black elephant in the room.” This may be true, but more importantly West was a dead horse being beaten for two and a half hours.
If America didn’t know what happened to the innocent country star already, we certainly do now. Before Taylor Swift’s performance, there was a video recap of her sabotaged ’09 acceptance speech which gave way to “Innocent”, her droopy ballad about none other than Kanye.
After a few more stints in which Handler introduced herself to Ke$ha and Jason Derulo in auto tune and then emerged impregnated from a hot tub after joining the cast of The Jersey Shore, there was only one performance left.
Yes, Kanye West is apparently a valuable staple in the music industry according to MTV. He closed the show in 2008, ruined it in 2009, and became the star of the program again this year performing his song “Runaway”. The beginning was surprisingly beautiful until he started to sing about douche bags and assholes complete with a few verses in auto tune. The whole shebang was painfully ironic.
“The show was pretty good this year,” said Caitlyn Brandt, a freshman in the First Year College. “Gaga’s outfits were crazy, Bieber was cute, but there was definitely too much Kanye.”
So there were no huge surprises or shocking moments. No love stories and very few tears. This year’s VMA was simply a reiteration of last year’s at most. It wasn’t quite a waste of time, and watching a rerun or two is still an attractive option when nothing else is on. So goodbye to all of those 2010 Moonmen and hopefully goodbye to Kanye’s antics. 2011 should bring a lot more promise.