Coronavirus, be damned!
The pandemic ain’t going away any time soon (thanks Trump), but MTV made the VMAs work even in spite of the live crowd limitations faced by what ended up being far from a “normal” show last night.
Related: Flashback To When Low-Key ‘Tiger King’ Villain Made His Surprise VMAs Debut…
Hosted by Keke Palmer and chock full of awards, performances, and memorials and other references (RIP, Chadwick Boseman), last night’s awards show had it all! Even without the usual audience and theater feel to it! Dare we say… we could get used to this format?!
Don’t just take our word for it, though! Ch-ch-check out all the MTV VMAs live performances from last night (below) and see for yourself!
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Lady GaGa & Ariana Grande
Throwback feel + epic choreography + two icons… and everybody’s wearing a mask, too! Lady GaGa came through with a medley of hits from Chromatica, bringing out Ariana Grande for Rain On Me, and, look: if these lovely ladies can sing like that with their faces covered, YOU can wear a mask to go to the grocery story! Just saying! It ain’t hard, people!
Masks aside, the choreography and outfit changes were on point, the sound was great (Ariana hit ALL the high notes!), and the set was wacky, wild, and memorable — who can ever forget that brain piano, for one?! Seriously, the pandemic has changed everything about our lives this year, but with this high-quality performance we felt for just a moment like we were transformed back into a “normal” year at the VMAs. Loved it!
Miley Cyrus
Major 1980s vibes, a little black dress, and the slow, artistic cinematography of a music video combined to bring it ALL together for Miley Cyrus when she performed Midnight Sky for the show! Two full moons — a white one behind her, and a red one underneath — perfectly encircled the 27-year-old pop princess and set the vibe from the first moment she appeared on camera. The song itself has a super ’80s sound to it already, and Miley leaned all the way in on that with wardrobe, jewelry, hairstyle, everything!!! A little Madonna, a little Pat Benatar, and always a little bit that forever remains uniquely Miley!
The Weeknd
Three performances and three interesting, unique choices with the cinematography! Love how performers took a chance this year with the non-traditional format and lack of auditorium crowd! The Weeknd opted for a selfie-stick style opening to Blinding Lights here, as he performed while walking through a mirrored, crazy-lit maze full of smoke. Wild! And then he reaches the rooftop… with the helicopter… REALLY wild!!! And can we talk about that mustache, and hair, and bright red jacket?! If Miley brought ’80s vibes to the show last night, The Weeknd was rockin’ just a touch of ’70s feel to match!
BTW… The Weeknd’s final flourish fireworks show was 1000% better than Donald Trump‘s cheesy convention crap last week. Sucks to suck, Donald!
Machine Gun Kelly, Travis Barker, blackbear
Rooftop rock star vibes from DTLA! Machine Gun Kelly opted for a super high-energy medley here, going all in with both blackbear and Travis Barker in each of his songs for the show, My Ex’s Best Friend followed up with My Bloody Valentine. Clearly well-produced beyond what you’d normally expect from an awards show, the whole thing worked!! Oh, and we can’t be the only ones who imagine MGK singing these songs directly to Megan Fox, right?! LOLz!
DaBaby
Give DaBaby a lot of credit for this one!!! The rapper partnered up with Jabbawockeez for a trio of his songs, and relied heavily on their choreography as well as quite a bit of surreal CGI of a city back drop that really made things work! Also loved the police presence during Blind, allowing DaBaby to make a shrewd political statement with some very poignant graffiti on the side of the cop car, best seen at about the 2:25 mark in the video (above)!
Maluma
Pandemic or not, it feels like Maluma was forever made to perform at awards shows! The Colombian-born singer performed at a Brooklyn drive-in, allowing fans to social distance during the show while still giving off his signature latin vibes and tropical flare on Hawái! The whole thing ended faster than we wanted — give us a Maluma medley next time, please and thank you — but it only further solidified his standing as a performance powerhouse!
BTS
Ahh, yes, the performance social media had been waiting for all night! BTS had a hankerin’ for some big city nights with this one, performing Dynamite in full suits (shout out to some nice vests in that group!). The choreography and vocal hand-offs were tight AF, and the boys came through it pretty much exactly how you’d expect. No big mistakes or errors, but also, no big chances taken. It was fine!
Doja Cat
Remember MTV News?! OK, as your parents about that… Ha! Doja Cat gave off major throwback vibes with her other-worldly opener and double performance here, and it set off on social media, trending the performer on Twitter for much of the night afterwards! It’s easy to see why, too: the set design truly is other-worldly, the choreography is tight and original, and Doja Cat’s own outfit is beyond memorable! So much to see here!
CNCO
Another hot Latin performer, another day at the drive-in, driving home the point of being socially distant and coronavirus-conscious while still lighting the night on fire with CNCO‘s unique flare! The guys hit all the notes on this one, even opting for a few nice dance moves together, to boot! Oh, and look out at the end: more fireworks! Jealous yet, Donald?!
Black Eyed Peas, Tyga, Nicky Jam, Jessica Reynoso
The Black Eyed Peas had their own distance-conscious take with this one, performing on stage while fans appeared to be watching from all over via Zoom-like feeds! Original! There was plenty of CGI involved here in making the stage pop, but as far as choreography and movement went, this really felt like a “normal” VMAs performance! That’s not necessarily a bad thing, either — shout out to BEP for doing it live and rolling with the punches!
Chloe x Halle
Chloe x Halle work so well together, and last night’s performance here is another good example of why: the pair almost mirrors each other for much of the performance while going for a futuristic, sexy look that both of ’em pull off without question. Loved it!
JP Saxe and Julia Michaels
The deserted street duet! We needed one of these, especially with this apocalyptic message that, sadly, feels super-applicable in our crazy world in the year 2020!
Lewis Capaldi
Taking it down a notch for this one! Slow and steady, we needed some ballads to match up with all the high energy performances earlier in the night, and Lewis Capaldi absolutely did his thing with this one!
Tate McRae
It takes a lot to do this alone on stage and make the whole thing work! Great emotion and energy from Tate McRae in this one, loved it! Hopefully it’ll get her a larger audience within the mainstream world!
Jack Harlow
The NBA has been super-relevant recently in the battle for social justice and lasting change, and so Jack Harlow‘s Utah Jazz look and arena vibes never felt more relevant. The perfect closer for us here, we’d say. He shoots… he scores!!!
Well there you have it, Perezcious readers! What’d y’all think of last night’s unique Video Music Awards?! Unlike any year in the recent past for a lot of reasons, most especially the pandemic, but it was… compelling AF?! Right?! Or were you not feeling it at all?? Sound OFF with your take on all of it down in the comments (below)!!!
[Image via MTV/YouTube]
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