All in all, the awards ceremony was everything and more for someone who is obsessed with Hollywood and the stars that live there.
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It is an MTV production after all.
Despite the drop in television audience, MTV revealed that the decrease was offset in part by a massive surge in online streams, with the network claiming that the VMAs drew 45.8 million streams on Facebook; in 2015, that figure was 4.4 million. She surpassed Madonna, who previously held the record with 20, with her 21st win.
The 34-year-old superstar led all nominees heading into the show with 11 nods for her groundbreaking Lemonade album and short film. Adele, though, won’t attend the show at Madison Square Garden, her representative said. Only problem for MTV is that networks still earn the biggest ad dollars from linear views.
As the audience chanted his stage-name Yeezy, West likened his creative talent to that of Apple founder Steve Jobs and entertainment pioneer Walt Disney, and said that unnamed wealthy white people had warned him not to make the comparison. In true Kanye fashion, the rapper ranted onstage, touching on subjects from music to his beef with Taylor Swift to violence in his hometown Chicago before he debuted his music video for “Fade”, which starred Teyana Taylor.
Though Rihannah is sometimes been accused of seeming more like a vessel for producers than anything else, a unified and singular vision at work, a vision that the VMAs then connected with her hugely fun back catalogue.
The Canadian rapper told the crowd that he had been in love with RiRi since he was 22 years old before praising her talents in the industry. And the bling didn’t stop there: “She also wore over 70 carats” worth of diamond rings from Schwartz, her longtime jeweler and family friend. All his adult life he’s looked up to her, even though she’s younger than him.
BEYONCE has won top honours at MTV’s Video Music Awards in NY, where rapper Drake professed his “love” for Rihanna as she collected a lifetime achievement award. Although he thanked Rihanna, who’s featured on the track, Swift didn’t get a mention.
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David Bowie – who succumbed to cancer on 10 January – received four nominations for Lazarus and won best art direction.
