Rihanna was another big victor at the VMAs, which she opened with the first of four performances during the NY show, singing hits “Only Girl” (In The World), “We Found Love”, and “Where Have You Been”.
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Hardly anyone would protest the queen’s spot at No. 1. “One of my baddest women ever, I call her Rihanna/But that’s ’cause her name is Rihanna!”. She took her passion and made it happen. She grew angry and twerked while performing “Don’t Hurt Yourself” and ended with the anthemic “Formation”.
She also won Best Female Video and prizes for choreography, editing and long-form video in the awards that are voted on by fans. Each of the women received a hug from the singer, and Hernandez perhaps summed up their reactions the best.
The 34-year-old superstar led all nominees heading into the show with 11 nods for her groundbreaking Lemonade album and short film.
Jimmy Fallon introduced the top nominees and dressed as Ryan Lochte, with platinum blonde hair. As Lochte – who is dealing with trouble after filing a false robbery report over an incident during the Rio Olympics – Fallon lied onstage about writing Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” and directing the clips nominated for video of the year. I came here to present my new video.
Michael Phelps, who looked amused as he sat in the audience, appeared to mouth the words: “This is awesome”.
Britney made a somewhat triumphant return to the stage performing her new song Make Me with artist G-Eazy.
Opinions of the performance were mixed. Not only did she lip sync, in typical fashion, but she did so badly.
Rihanna was this year’s video Vanguard Award recipient, and she performed not once, not twice, but five separate times throughout the night.
In 2009, Rihanna asked Drake to write her a song, which was never released, but the two began seeing each other regularly, according to the New York Times.
Toward the end of his speech, Drake referred to Rihanna as “someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22 years old”, before handing her the award and trying to kiss her.
THE MIXED BAG: The first thing here is that Kanye West has the best and most radiant smile in the world. She played her hugest anthems like “Don’t Stop the Music”, “Diamonds“, “Stay”, and “Needed Me”, proving with each number-one hit that her legacy isn’t even close to being finished.
Rihanna performed four separate medleys of her biggest hits throughout the show after she was named the receipt of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, MTV’s equivalent of a lifetime achievement honour. I think it really is about her coming into her fierceness.
As for that “Famous” video, Amber Rose has been vocal about her own fame, which some say only came due to her relationship with West. “You have affected so many of our lives in the best way possible”, Drake captioned the post.
The VMAs also seemed to be a bit of a rollercoaster for megastar rapper Drake. This time, though, there’s speculation that Kanye West might have something to do with Kim Kardashian’s blonde hair, as he’s often shown a preference for her lighter locks in the past.
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Turns out the result is a little more mainstream: She’s on jury duty. And where do we sign up for Ariana Grande’s spin class?
