Sean “Diddy” Combs
Instead of a main host of the broadcast, 2016 MTV VMAs featured Key and Peele doing a parody of newscasters. Jay Pharoah was included and he did his news parody from the audience before they introduced P Diddy. Diddy said it was good to be back home in New York City. He announced the winner of the Best Hip Hop Award. He said the Bronx is where Hip Hop began, but he called out all of the boroughs. The Moon Man went to Drake for Hotline Bling. Diddy said Drake was stuck in traffic. He implied that he was going to keep the award, but told Drake to come and get it.
Key and Peele were back and threw to DJ Khaled and then Hailee Steinfeld just to remind the audience to continue to vote for the Best New Artist Award.
Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj
Chance the Rap was next. He introduced the performance by Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj. Ariana started out in a row of exercise bikes singing Side to Side. Nicki Minaj joined in and the ladies killed it. Pink was the color again because Ariana and Nicki were rocking it too.
Key and Peele were back. I love them, but too much time was devoted to their skits.
Alicia Keys
Alicia was next still donning her make-up free look. She gave a shout out to New York and the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a Dream Speech.” She then performed her own speech against violence and war and ended with the hope that one day, “All women and men are created equal.” Her category was Best Male Video and the Moon Man went to Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna, This is What You Came For. Calvin did a video acceptance speech because work kept him from being there.
Michael Phelps
Michael was up next. He came out to a rousing ovation and chants of “USA.” He introduced Future who performed 100,000 to 100,000. The audience was on their feet throughout the entire performance.
Kanye West
Kanye came out to his controversial lyrics about Taylor Swift playing in the background. He started by saying, “I am Kanye West.” He said he came to present his new video, “But before that, I’m gone talk.”
Kanye paused and hesitated quite a bit, before talking about Fame. “I put Ray J in there bro.” He got off track and called out Amber in the audience. “I see you, Amber.” “My wife is a G.” He rambled meaning Kim was secure enough for him to call out Amber. He said, “I love all you all.” He continued to ramble and appeared to reprimand someone in the audience for interrupting him. The audience started chanting and he quieted them down by yelling, “Bro.”
“I’m going to play a piece of my art and I just hope you all have a good time.”
And his video Fade played. The video featured a scantily clad woman dancing her exposed button off alone in a gym. It then cuts to a shower scene of the woman and a man. And ends with a woman with a cat face, a man, a child, and some sheep. This one may have to grow on us.
Rihanna Returns
The 2016 MTV VMAs continued with Naomi Campbell who introduced Rihanna’s second performance, Rude Boy. The stage was full of dancers with Rihanna has she performed What’s My Name and Work. The audience was dancing as much as the stage dancers. She killed it.
Rita Ora and Ansel Elgort introduced Nick Jonas who performed Bacon with Ty Dolla $ign.
Beyonce
Serena Williams looked fabulous as she introduced Beyonce, “Give it up for my friend Beyonce.”
Beyonce first appeared in a holograph image full of flames. On stage, she appeared in a white cape as she performed I Pray You Catch Me.
She changed into a black bodysuit and really shook her butt while performing Hold Up. She grabbed a bat and gave the camera lens a whack and a crack. Beyonce then performed Sorry. They put a fur on her shoulders when she finished and she started singing Don’t Hurt Yourself.
MTV gave Beyonce a chunk of time and she burned that stage up. Literally, she set the stage on fire at the end of her performance of Don’t Hurt Yourself and she wasn’t finished yet. She then performed Formation.
Beyonce slayed the 2016 MTV VMAs. The audience roared throughout her standing ovation.
Key and Peele were stunned said they are done. “How do you tweet that.” They were holding back tears. “Dead, toe tag it, morgue it.” Beyonce’s performance left them with no words.
The award for Best Collaboration was next and it went to Fifth Harmony and Ty Dolla $ign for Work From Home.
Kim Kardashian West
Kim introduced Britney Spears, “It’s Britney Bitch.” Britney performed her new single Make Me with G-Eazy. That was it, just the one song? I expected more from Britney after all of these fabulous performances.
The Final Five
The Final Five were next and the audience shouted, “USA.” When Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian announced to the audience that they Final Five and the audience went crazy. Gabby Douglas was missing due to medical issues.
They introduced the award for Best Female Video and the Moon Man went to Beyonce.
The audience went nuts and the girls all hugged as Beyonce as she accepted her award. “Have a beautiful night thank you, guys.”
Rihanna Again
Tracy Ellis Ross was next to bring Rihanna back out. Rihanna sang Needed Me alone and then moved into Pour It Up joined by her dancers, followed by Bitch Better Have Money.
Key and Peele joked that we are watching a Rihanna concert in the middle of the VMAs.
Fifth Harmony was back to present the Best New Artist Award and the Moon Mam went to DNCE for Cake By The Ocean.
The Chainsmokers were next and performed We Ain’t Never Getting Older. Good beat Chainsmokers.
Video of the Year
Jimmy Fallon made his appearance as an Olympian. As Ryan Lochte and he sang, “Is it too late now to say I’m sorry” and continued to make jokes about Ryan lying. Fallon was there to introduce Video of the Year. The Moon Man went to Beyonce for Formation.
Beyonce thanked her daughter, husband, and her incredible team. “God bless you guys and thank you.”
Mary J. Blige introduced the final performance of the evening. Rihanna closed the show with Stay and Diamond.
And Drake did make the show and presented Rihanna with the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award of 2016.
‘The one and only Rihanna.” Drake delivered a very nice speech to honor her. “She is someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22 years old.” Thought he was going to propose there for a moment.
Rihanna said, “This was such an amazing night and an amazing moment in my career.”
“Thank you, Drake, for that amazing speech and thank you MTV I had so much fun.”
Key and Peele joked as they closed the program, but the ladies owed the 2016 MTV VMAs.
The performances were so good you could forget it’s an awards show.
See you next year VMAs.!
Tanya Hart
Twitter @TanyaHollywood