The 2015 MTV Video Music Awards was all about squashing beefs, for the most part. The award show opened with a performance by Nicki Minaj who was later joined by Taylor Swift. The two had been bickering back and forth on Twitter not so long ago, and so their stage collaboration put the kibosh on that. Later in the evening, Swift would come out to present the coveted Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award to Kanye West. Of course, Swift delicately buried the hatchet between them in regards to Kanye stealing her spotlight back in 2009 during the now infamous “Imma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time” interruption. Two beefs squashed, and one emerges: Nicki Minaj managed to squeeze in a snipe at Miley when the “Anaconda” artist took the stage to accept the award for Best Hip-Hop Video. Host Miley apparently said some nasty things about Minaj in the press recently, and Minaj wasn’t ready to go quietly into the night. You could argue that the moment was scripted, but when the camera swung over to Miley just as she was about to start the next segment, she looked genuinely surprised and taken aback by it all. If MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch ever makes a comeback, I think they’ve got their first matchup all lined up for them now.
All in all, it was a rather lackluster VMAs. In terms of memorable performances, there really were only two: Tori Kelly blew away the competition with her talented set of pipes singing a powerful rendition of her single “Should’ve Been Us;” and The Weeknd’s massive hit “Can’t Feel My Face” got the crowd to its feet, even Kanye West was dancing in the aisles! Speaking of Mr. West, he accept the Vanguard Award late in the telecast. And instead of performing a medley of hits like Justin Timberlake did last year, he stormed the stage and presented a classic Kanye rant that went on for far too long. In a nutshell, he admitted he was high and he’s running for president in 2020. That last part is a joke…I think.
Curious about the winners? It shouldn’t come as any surprise that T-Swift walked away with the most Moonman statues, this year specially designed by fashion designer Jeremy Scott. Her “Bad Blood” music video, which has racked nearly 500 million views on YouTube, was crowned Video of the Year and “Blank Space” was named Best Pop Video and Best Female Video. That video, mind you, has been viewed over 1.1 million times on YouTube! Elsewhere, Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars took home the award for Best Male Video for “Uptown Funk,” Big Sean, Kanye West, and John Legend’s “One Man Can Change the World” won Best Video with a Social Message, Fall Out Boy remains relevant winning Best Rock Video for “Uma Thurman,” and Fetty Wap is The Artist to Watch thanks to his uber-popular banger “Trap Queen.”