Award shows often take place amid distractions, from natural disasters to civil unrest to the aftermath of a high-profile death. Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) had to coexist with all three, not to mention a worldwide pandemic that made it impossible; and, in New York City, illegal — to assemble a live audience.
1. The VMAs actually happened in 2020
In the midst of all the mayhem, MTV somehow made a performance-driven award show without live crowds. The energy was weird and spontaneity was hard to come by — more on that in a moment — but they pulled it off.
The MTV VMAs was complete with lavishly staged performances by Lady Gaga, BTS, The Weeknd, Doja Cat, DaBaby, Miley Cyrus, Maluma, Black Eyed Peas and others.
2. It was a big night for Lady Gaga
The superstar took home the inaugural Tricon Award — “triple threat/icon”; which is basically the equivalent of being inducted into the VMAs Hall of Fame.
She put on a grand and game performance with a guest appearance from Ariana Grande, she won a bucket of other awards; Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Collaboration, Best Cinematography. She gave a bunch of speeches and she rocked a series of truly magnificent masks. It was her night.
3. Green screens everywhere
Without crowds, artists like Doja Cat seized the opportunity to seriously blur the lines separating “live performances” from “music videos.” What they lost in spontaneity, they gained in production values, from BTS dancing in front of an assortment of wildly different backdrops to Maluma and CNCO each performing at what looked like a neon-lit drive-in theatre.
Bonus points to rapper DaBaby, who brought in the dance troupe Jabbawockeez to help serve up a bit of visual commentary about police violence.
4. Keke Palmer tried
The actress, singer and newly minted MTV VMAs host had a basically impossible job; she had to maintain energy, perform skits, tell jokes and otherwise keep an award show moving, and she had to do it in empty rooms. Sure, the production simulated crowd noise, in a bit of fakery that distracted as much as it helped. But Palmer held her own — and, seriously, that was a feat.
5. The “Tricon Award”
The VMAs’ equivalent of a Lifetime Achievement Award began as something called the “Video Vanguard Award” — and, later, the “Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.”
Without fanfare or even explanation, it would appear that the prize has again been renamed, this time as the “Tricon Award,” perhaps as a quiet effort to distance the VMAs from controversies surrounding Jackson. If you hear about these VMAs at all in the coming days, this issue might be the reason why.