The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards (Recap) – blogged by @niksofly

Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards was nothing short of epic!  The Leader of Navy and Queen of the Beehive were under one roof. It was destined to be lit. 

Bad Girl Ri Ri opened the show up with a smashing performance of medleys that included “We Found Love” , “Don’t Stop the Music”, “Only Girl”.  Ariana Grande hit the stage with Nicki Minaj. Alicia Keys paid homage to the 53^rd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s  “ I Have A Dream Speech” with a powerful poem. Michael Phelps introduced Future and Panda’s own, Desiigner, got his life with the performance. Yeezy shouted out his ex- Amber. In true Yeezy fashion, he went on a tangent before debuting his new video “Fade” featuring Teyana Taylor as the lead.

And then Yonce’ was all on our mouth like liquor. Blazing the stage with #Lemonade cuts, she gave us life! I’m not the biggest Bey fan, but she is definitely an entertainer. Her shows are always intricate. She thinks about every detail. Britney’s performance was a bust, but all entertainers are entitled to one televised poor performance. Rihanna came back to save the day again. Drake gave us high school awkwardness and prepubescent cuteness when he admitted he has been in love with Rihanna since he was 22 years old.

Beyonce was nominated 11 times. She took home 8 of those nominations including the awards for Video of the Year with “Formation” and Best Pop Video as well as Best Female Video among many others. She passed Madonna with the most Moonmen.  Fifth Harmony Took home Song of the Summer for “All In My Head”. Drake Took Best Hip Hop Video For “Hotline Bling”. Rihanna received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award and snagged another award for the collab with Calvin Harris. I would lie to you like I paid attention to all the entire award show, but I was only concerned with the performances.

Check out complete list of awards below.

WINNERS

VIDEO OF THE YEAR

BEYONCÉ – “Formation”

Director: Melina Matsoukas

MICHAEL JACKSON VIDEO VANGUARD AWARD

Rihanna

BEST FEMALE VIDEO

BEYONCÉ – “Hold Up”

Director: Jonas Åkerlund, Beyoncé Knowles Carter

BEST MALE VIDEO

Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna – “This Is What You Came For”

Director: Emil Nava

BEST COLLABORATION

Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Work From Home”

Director: Director X

BEST HIP HOP VIDEO

Drake – “Hotline Bling”

Director: Director X

BEST POP VIDEO

BEYONCÉ – “Formation”

Director: Melina Matsoukas

BEST ROCK VIDEO

twenty one pilots – “Heathens”

Director: Andrew Donoho

BEST ELECTRONIC VIDEO

Calvin Harris & Disciples – “How Deep Is Your Love”

Director: Emil Nava

BREAKTHROUGH LONG-FORM VIDEO

BEYONCÉ – Lemonade

BEST NEW ARTIST

Presented by Taco Bell®

DNCE

SONG OF SUMMER

Presented by Verizon

Fifth Harmony featuring Fetty Wap – “All In My Head (Flex)”

PROFESSIONAL CATEGORIES

Presented by Orbit® Gum

BEST ART DIRECTION

David Bowie – “Blackstar”

Production Designer: Jan Houllevigue

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

BEYONCÉ – “Formation”

Choreographer: Chris Grant, JaQuel Knight, Dana Foglia

BEST DIRECTION

BEYONCÉ – “Formation”

Director: Melina Matsoukas

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

BEYONCÉ – “Formation”

Cinematographer: Malik Sayeed

BEST EDITING

BEYONCÉ – “Formation”

Editor: Jeff Selis

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Coldplay – “Up&Up”

VFX Editor: Vania Heymann

All in all, the performances were dope.

-Niko Rose