The 2015 version’s cumulative live-plus-same day audience was down 3% from the year prior, when the awards show was carried on MTV, VH1 and MTV2.
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“First of all, I’d like to thank my handsome daughter and my incredible husband for all of their support”, said Beyonce, who walked the carpet with daughter Blue Ivy and the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner – who all appeared in “Lemonade” movie. When I think about the Vanguard Award and receiving this tonight, all I could think of was my country. “My success started as my dream, but now my success is not my own”.
– Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award: Rihanna.
And this time around, almost every star who graced the red carpet tried his or her hand at bringing some smoking-hot sexiness to one of the last big events of the summer. She later signed a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning for its then-president, hip hop producer and rapper Jay Z. Rihanna’s first two studio albums, “Music of the Sun” (2005) and “A Girl Like Me” (2006) charted on the top 10 of the U.S. Billboard 200 and respectively produced the singles “Pon de Replay” and “SOS”. “It’s my family, my fans, my country … it’s women, it’s black women”.
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This was Britney Spears’ first VMA performance in a decade, and she’s got a long history of creating big moments on the awards show. The four-year-old seemingly stopped on the red carpet to ask her mom a question and with the quick snap of a photo, Blue Ivy went viral too. She was joined by rapper G-Eazy – and she lip synched the hook to his hit song, “Me, Myself and I”. He did, of course, try and be the MVP as much as possible and rambled (in true Kanye fashion) on subjects from music to his beef with Taylor Swift to violence in his hometown Chicago. Grande cycled while singing and was backed by female dancers imitating her, while her male dancers lifted dumbbells and did other exercises. The best male video nominees are West, Drake, the Weeknd, Bryson Tiller and Calvin Harris, whose nomination is for “This is What You Came For“, which he co-wrote with former girlfriend Swift. Puff Daddy, who presented the award, said Drake was stuck in traffic.
