Good on Madonna! She didnt showboat the opening, but gave a thoughtful, emotional and affecting tribute speech about Michael Jackson to get things rolling.
- Good on Madonna! She didnt showboat the opening, but gave a thoughtful, emotional and affecting tribute speech about Michael Jackson to get things rolling.
- The dancing chorus replicating some of MJ's best moves was just foreplay to the arrival of sister Janet, who got through her number with a maximum of (apparent) lip syncing and a minimum of wardrobe malfunction.
- First Oh no, he didnt! moment: Russell Brand makes hermaphrodite jokes about Lady Gaga. Meanwhile, the lady herself fuels rumors she is having a fling with Kermit the frog and displays enough fashion craziness to make Bjork's Oscar swan dress seem positively dull by comparison.
- Kanye West becomes the Joe Wilson of the VMAs, interrupting the classy (in a gorgeous backless dress) Taylor Swift - as she accepts her award for Best Female Video - to complain that Beyonce should get it.
- Ever the trooper, Taylor Swift performs in the 42nd Street subway platform and on an incredibly shiny Queens- bound F train (prerecorded), which "arrives" at Rockefeller Plaza station in record time, allowing her to finish her VMA-winning hit on the stage outside Radio City Music Hall.
- Lady Gaga went for baroque in a huge dance number that had beaucoup glitz, a dancer in a wheelchair, a Liberace moment at the piano, her own bloodied body and other inexplicable moments.
- In accepting the award for Rock Video ("21 Guns") Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong said, "videos, yes...MTV, play more videos!" Amen to that.
- Who'd a thunk it? Between his amusing filmed segments with Tracy Morgan and his sentimental acceptance speech for Best Hip Hop Video ("We Made You") Eminem was a calm presence on the scene.
- If the whole pop diva thing doesn't work, Pink proves that she could swing an audition with Cirque du Soleil.
- All's well that ends well. Upon winning her own moon man for Video of the Year ("Single Ladies"), Beyonce invites Taylor Swift to return to the stage and give a belated acceptance speech.
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