Sunday 28 August 2011

MTV 2011 VMA recap: Beyonce pregnant, Gaga goes Gaguy



MTV 2011 VMA recap: Beyonce pregnant, Gaga goes Gaguy
Lady Gaga and Beyonce perform Sunday at the 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards. (Getty Images)
I'm not sure how they manage to do year after year, but MTV's Video Music Awards got a little weirder again. Still,Beyonce upstaged the 28th annual event Sunday by showing off her baby bump on the black carpet (it was black, not red—not sure why).

The 29-year-old singer is pregnant, expecting her first child with rap superstar hubby Jay-Z. After bringing the house down with her standout performance later in the night, she clutched her belly to repeat the news, clearly delighting Jay-Z and Kanye West in the audience.

Lady Gaga kicked off the bizarro ceremony. Or should I say Lady Gaguy? Dressed as her male alter ego, Jo Calderone, the singer performed "You and I" looking like Pony Boy, Ralph Macchio's character from "The Outsiders." She blathered on about men and women and relationships before singing, apparently working out some personal issues. At least the old rockers were pleased: Brian May of Queen played guitar for her.

Gaga stayed in male character the entire night, even as she presented Britney Spears with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award.

Like I said, it was a strange night: Brit-Brit gets a lifetime achievement award? OK.

Surprisingly, Britney didn’t lip-synch her acceptance speech, and she declined when Gaguy tried to make out with her. (Why should Gaga stop imitating Madonna now?)

"I've done that already!" Britney said. She then used her speech to introduce Beyonce's performance, which didn't make a lot of sense.

But finally, train wreck after train wreck of performances from earlier were forgotten as Beyonce treated viewers to some class. Dressed in black slacks and a bedazzled purple-blue sports coat, Mama Fierce sang "Love on Top" with plenty of pregnancy approved moves and vocal power.

The best performances of the night, as usual, were the simplest ones. Adele sang "Someone Like You" with one piano, one spotlight and her incredible voice. And Young the Giant brought rock back to MTV with a rousing "My Body."

The best diss of the night—that I didn't read on Twitter about the awards show—came fromKaty Perry, who joked with her co-winner, Kanye West, as they accepted an early award. "Now this is a time where you want to interrupt me, Kanye," she said, reminding everyone about his infamous disturbance of Taylor Swift from the 2009 VMAs.

West seemed to take it in stride, but was quick to correct Perry when she said it was his first VMA.

The VMAs went without a host this year, and honestly, I couldn't tell the difference. There were still plenty of bad jokes, awkward moments and missed cues.

No host meant the stars talked more, so I want to offer some final advice to the performers, the award winners and presenters: The more you curse on stage, the less fans watching on TV hear of what you say.

Just saying.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
  • We got out first look at “The Hunger Games” with a short preview of the 2012 movie.

  • Justin Bieber thanked God and Jesus for his win, but did not thank Youtube.

  • Bieber’s pet snake is named “Johnson.” Insert your own joke here.

  • Nicki Minaj looked like a Toys R Us store fell on her.

  • Chris Brown did some crazy high-flying, but lip-synched “Beautiful People” while doing it. Pink does trapeze works and really sings, sir.

  • Tony Bennett showed a snippet of a duet he had done with Amy Winehouse as part of a tribute to the singer, who died earlier this year. It gave me goosebumps.

  • Cloris Leachman got stuck presenting with the gals from "Jersey Shore." Sorry Cloris.

  • Jack BlackWill Ferrell and Seth Rogen performed as the Beastie Boys from the future. No, it wasn't funny.

  • Jay-Z and West performed "Otis." I don't get the hype.

  • Perry accepted the Video of the Year award with a giant block of cheese on her head.

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