The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards

Last night was MTV’s annual Video Music Awards show, also commonly known as the VMA's. For those that did not have the pleasure of seeing the show it was quite a sight to see. This year the VMAs were yet again hosted by Russell Brand. It also included amazing performances by Lady Gaga, Green Day, Beyonce, Muse, Jay Z and Madonna. Janet Jackson also gave a special tribute performance in respect of her late brother, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson which was an amazing way to start the VMA'S.

After the tribute to the late King of Pop, the first award, Best Female Video, was awarded to Taylor Swift. Her heartfelt acceptance speech was interrupted by a brazen Kanye West. He took the microphone from her and said that Beyonce should have received the award and that Beyonce had the best video of 2009. Immediately following Kanye’s small shout-out, a shocked and somewhat distraught Taylor Swift left the stage and the show went to a commercial break. After this, the Internet exploded with all kinds of comments and bashing toward how unprofessional Kanye West was. According to several sources that scene was then removed from the VMAs during the commercial break.

After the show came back from commercial break, the award for Best Rock Video was awarded to Green Day for their music video “21 Guns”. Some might argue however that Paramore’s music video “Decode” should have gotten the award. Billie Armstrong during his acceptance speech thanked everyone involved in the video and thanked MTV, and said for them to keep playing music videos. The irony of this is that MTV no longer plays music videos on a regular basis.

Afterward Taylor Swift performed “You Belong With Me” which seemed to take place through some of the New York City Subway system with a finale right in front of Radio City Music Hall. One cannot help but wonder if the performance was staged somehow because the subway and the stations featured in the performance did not reflect what an actual subway train and station looks like. Next was Lady Gaga performing “Paparazzi”, which was a very different performance. The reason being is that it looked more like a creepy opera gone very bad. After the performance things just got creepier as she suspended herself above the stage with her face covered in “blood” and hanging to look like she had just died during the performance.

Next was the Best Pop Video Award which was presented to Britney Spears for her music video “Womanizer”. Although she could not be at the VMAs she made her acceptance speech via satellite from her tour which would have been fine if everyone was not yelling into the microphone making everything sound distorted. Then came Green Day’s performance of “East Jesus Nowhere” which was good, just a normal rock performance. Next came the trailer to the upcoming trailer The Twilight Saga: New Moon which seemed to be an excessively long trailer which was followed by Beyonce’s performance of “Single Ladies”, which at the beginning seemed more like a strip tease than an actual introduction to the actual performance.

Next came Best Male Video which was awarded to T.I.’s video “Live Your Life”, which was a big hit during the Summer. T.I.'s video was followed by Muse’s first American Television performance which was nicely done, however seemed short. The next award was for Best Hip-Hop Video which was awarded to Eminem for the music video “We Made You” which was then followed by a tribute to the late DJ AM. For those who are not familiar with DJ AM he was a club DJ and collaborated with a lot of musical talent throughout his career.

Next was the Best New Artist Award which Lady Gaga won for her music video “Pokerface”, which was followed by Pink’s performance of “Sober” which received a lot of praise because it was done with a lot of acrobatics.

The final award of the night was Video of The Year which was won by Beyonce for her video “Single Ladies”. In accepting the award Beyonce did something really sweet, and quite professional which was calling Taylor Swift to the stage so she could have her moment, and finish her acceptance speech which was met with a lot of praise from the fans and their colleagues.

The two final segments of the night came from a finale performance by new York’s own Jay Z, accompanied by Alicia Keys where an amazing performace of the song “Empire State of Mind” was sung. This is also one of the tracks off of Jay Z’s recently released album, Blueprint 3. The final segment is a clip from what appeared to be Michael Jackson’s documentary about his plan to do a final world tour which will be released in theaters October 28th.