The 2015 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) were nothing short of entertaining. I personally find this time of year to be the equivalent to Christmas as I eat, sleep and breathe pop-culture.
However, I had my reservations when I heard that Miley Cyrus, infamous for her wacky wardrobe (or lack-there-of) and her habit of saying whatever she wants to without a filter, would be hosting the event. Don’t get me wrong, I have always been a die-hard Cyrus fan, but recently her crazy colorful Instagram posts and tweets have been a bit too much for me. So, naturally I was nervous to see how she’d behave on live television. She properly fulfilled her hostess duties by robotically reading off of the teleprompter, technically staying fully clothed the entire show (despite one, what seemed to be intentional, wardrobe malfunction) and by dodging a direct verbal attack from Nicki Minaj in order to keep the show appropriate enough for TV.
However, despite all of these things her show closing performance was too ‘The Flaming Lips meets a Lisa Frank coloring book’ for me. I’m aware that the song was inspired by Cyrus’ Happy Hippie Foundation, which encourages young people to fight for homeless youth, LGBT and other vulnerable parties, but I think the message of her non-profit got lost when she started singing about not caring about anything but smoking marijuana. Honestly, I think Cyrus’ only shining moment during the VMAs was when she handled being called out by Nicki Minaj. For those of you who don’t know, a week before the show Cyrus did an interview for The New York Times and commented on the now-concluded Taylor Swift vs. Nicki Minaj feud. Cyrus stated Minaj was “not very polite” in her exchanges with Swift. She also expressed that she felt Minaj was displacing her frustration on Swift over not being nominated for “Video of the Year.” Needless to say, Minaj was not happy with the comments that were made and decided to call Cyrus out during her acceptance speech for “Best Hip-Hop Video.” There has been speculation that the ordeal might have been staged by MTV producers, but if you ask me the look of shock on Cyrus’ face as Minaj spoke said otherwise.
Any other star might have turned and ran after being publicly called out on live television, but Cyrus surprisingly kept her composure and stood her ground, making it the starlet’s only shining moment throughout the entire award show. Artists like Taylor Swift and Kanye West made a bigger splash than Cyrus, which was disappointing considering just about everyone was hoping for another crazy Cyrus stint similar to her performance with Robin Thicke at the 2013 VMAs. Swift showed up to the event flanked by her army of “Bad Blood” music video gal-pals looking as chic as ever. Swift showed the world what a class-act she truly is by maintaining an “I’m-cool-with-everyone” attitude throughout the entire night. Swift joined Minaj on stage during her opening number, thus putting an end to any remaining feud rumors. She also presented Kanye West with the “Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award” proving there is no bad blood between the two over West’s 2009 VMA “I’mma let you finish” fiasco. West made his mark on this year’s show by using his acceptance speech to rant. At first I, and I think everyone else, was following him. But about five minutes into the speech he started losing everyone. I officially have no clue what he was talking about and from the looks on the faces of the audience members, neither did they. It became clear he was using that time to rant about whatever he was frustrated over as we all know Mr. West is a very opinionated human. He ended his eleven-minute speech by declaring he would be running for president in 2020. Which, let’s be real, probably is not even a little bit true.
Claire Hickey can be contacted at chickey@kscequinox.com
