This time, it would have been better if Kanye West had stormed the stage at the 2010 VMAs. He should have snatched that guitar out of Taylor Swift’s hands and broken it into so many pieces it would have become a thousand toothpicks. He certainly would have stolen the spotlight again with that suit that looked like it had been dipped in orange florescent slime.
Other than that, the Music Television Video Music Awards were entertaining — when it wasn’t an undeserved, record-setting coronation for Lady Gaga. It took away from the best performance of the night, Drake’s “Fancy” that included legend Mary J. Blige and Mr. Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz.
In the most anticipated musical number of the night, Swift reprised last year’s debacle when Kanye went onstage with a pimp cup and haircut that resembled Egyptian hieroglyphics and declared Beyoncé the winner over Swift. Her comeback song was condescending, irritating and embarrassing to watch. And she seemingly stole words from Kanye’s Twitter mea culpa last week. What … did she write the song overnight?”
“Thirty-two and still growing up now, who you are is not what you did,” she sang softly. “You’re still an innocent. I guess you really did it this time. Lost your balance on a tightrope, lost your mind trying to get it back. … Everyone of us has messed up too …”
Whatever, Taylor. Kanye‘s show-closing number probably woke a lot of people who were slipping into slumber, rapping as he was raising a “toast to the a–holes,” “scumbags” and “douche bags.” Ummm … OK.
Other highlights:
Was that will.I.am in blackface?!? It sort of took away from Nicki Minaj’s entertaining pre-show number. However, a pre-show number let you know she would lose “Best New Artist” to Justin Beiber.
Did Lady Gaga deserve 13 nominations and eight awards? She cried too much and received far too much praise and too many awards for videos that were good but not transformative nor transcendent, especially not nearly in the way of the man who revolutionized the medium a generation ago (we don’t need to mention his name).
Eminem, whose “Not Afraid,” won for Best Male Video and Hip-Hop Video, has aged significantly, while Rihanna still needs to polish up her live singing.
Loved the bit where Lindsay Lohan made light fun of herself and her much-documented drama with talk-show host Chelsea Handler, who had just emerged from being butt-slapped repeatedly as she walked down the hall backstage. “Have you been drinking?” Lohan asked Handler. “Do you think anyone wants to work with a drunk? Take it from me! They don’t!”
While I’ve never seen her movies and therefore don’t understand why Lohan is famous, she did manage to make herself a more sympathetic figure than she is. –terry shropshire
