Taylor Owns The VMA’s

Taylor Swift took over the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards last night.

MTV went live from New Jersey last night for the show, hosted by comedian Sebastian Maniscalco. The event included performances from Swift, the Jonas Brothers, Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes, Lizzo, Miley Cyrus and Lil Nas X, while Missy Elliott was presented with the Video Vanguard Award.

Swift called out the White House after she won the top prize – Video of the Year – for her LGBTQ pride anthem, “You Need To Calm Down.” She opened the show at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, with a performance of the hit song. Swift was flanked by colorful dancers, and then brought it back to her roots by bringing out her guitar to sing the title track of her new album Lover.

The words “Equality Act” were shown over the 29-year-old singer’s performance, a reference to her support of the Equality Act legislation that would prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. After winning the top prize Taylor and a number of cast members from the video appeared onstage to accept the honor.

The video for “You Need to Calm Down” — which also won the Video For Good Honor — finishes with the words: “Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally.”

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Swift was tied with Ariana Grande as the most nominated artist of the night, up for 10 awards. Taylor ended up with three, snagging Video of the Year and Video For Good for “You Need To Calm Down,” and Best Visual Effects for her “ME!” hit featuring Brendon Urie. Ariana took home Artist of the Year, Best Direction for “thank you, next,” Best Art Direction for “7 Rings,” and Song of Summer for “Boyfriend,” her hit with Social House.

Other Highlights:
Host Sebastian Maniscalco’s VMAs monologue was savaged on twitter. Maniscalco started off ok, praising Jersey legend Bruce Springsteen, however, he didn’t mention the Jonas Brothers, who are also from Jersey and in the middle of a triumphant comeback. But things got cringey. Maniscalco joked about iPhones and influencers – in an arena full of influencers. Then he directly mocked millennials’ perceived “sensitivity” and the idea of “trigger warnings.”

Rapper French Montana took a moment to address his thoughts on immigration before presenting the award for Best Latin. “I am so proud to pronounce this award because as an immigrant, I feel like we are the people that make this country and I feel like I wanna be the voice,” he told the audience. Montana, who is from Morocco, went on to describe the nominees as immigrants and urged the audience to “check them out.” The award went to Rosala and J Balvin for “Con Altura.”

While presenting the Video of the Year award with Queen Latifah, John Travolta said, “I shouldn’t do this because I’ll just mispronounce s**t and f**k it up,” before handing the envelope to her. Travolta famously mispronounced Tony Award-winning actress/singer Idina Menzel on the Oscars stage as “Adele Dazeem.” And while he didn’t mispronounce Taylor Swift’s name when she won the VMA, the internet still thinks he flubbed it by attempting to give the award to Jade Jolie, Taylor’s drag queen double, instead of the singer herself.

Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello made their first public appearance as a couple and the pair performed their hit “Seorita” together for the first time. During the performance, there was romantic lights, arm stroking, dancing and almost kissing – but even though they didn’t deliver an onstage smooch, they were seen cuddling in the audience and getting cozy during the show.

Miley Cyrus performed her new breakup ballad “Slide Away” for the first time last night. During her performance Cyrus showed off her new tattoo – an emotional lyric from the Pixies’ song “The Thing” inked on her bicep – that was seemingly inspired by her split from Liam Hemsworth. The tattoo reads: “My head was feeling scared, but my heart was feeling free.”

The show closed down with an energetic, all-star tribute to the Garden State’s native hip-hop legends. Newark native Ice-T took the stage to set it up and gave a quick verse of his 1986 gangsta rap classic “6 ‘n the Mornin’.” Then Naughty by Nature’s Vin Rock amped the crowd up with a chorus of “jump, jump” as Treach and a hype man in a bear costume gave the crowd a taste of “O.P.P.” before Lords of the Underground’s DoItAll set up Redman for a verse of “Da Rockwilder.” The action moved over to Fetty Wap, who busted out some “Trap Queen.” Wyclef Jean strummed a guitar for a verse of his solo single “Gone Til November” and a nod to Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry,” with a slight tweak of the lryics to move the government yard from Trenchtown to Jersey. The state’s unofficial royalty, Queen Latifah, drove up to the stage on a motorcycle before rocking out to “U.N.I.T.Y.” The number ended with a group jam of “Hip Hop Hooray.”

Performances:

• Megan Thee Stallion opened the pre-show with a performance of “Big Ole Freak” and later performed a medley of “Hot Girl Summer” and “Cash Sh*t.”
• Taylor Swift opened the show with “You Need To Calm Down” followed by “Lover”
• Shawn Mendes performed “If I Can’t Have You”
• Lizzo performed “Truth Hurts” and “Good As Hell.”
• The Jonas Brothers performed “Sucker” and “Only Human” from Asbury Park, New Jersey
• Lil Nas X performed “Panini”
• Missy Elliott performed a medley of hits, including “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” “Get Your Freak On,” “Pass That Dutch,” “Lose Control” and “Work It”
• Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello performed “Seorita”
• Miley Cyrus performed “Slide Away”
• Rosala & Ozuna performed “Yo x Ti, Tu x Me,” and “Aute Cuture”
• H.E.R. performed a new track titled “Anti”
• Normani performed “Motivation”
• Big Sean and ASAP Ferg performed “Bezerk”
• Bad Bunny and J Balvin performed “Qu Pretendes”
• The show closed with all-star performance by Queen Latifah, Naughty by Nature, Redman, Fetty Wap and Wyclef Jean – all Jersey natives.

Winners:

• Video Of The Year: Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down”
• Artist Of The Year: Ariana Grande
• Song Of The Year: Lil Nas X ft. Billy Ray Cyrus – “Old Town Road (Remix)”
• Best New Artist: Billie Eilish
• Best Collaboration: Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – “Seorita”
• Push Artist Of The Year: Billie Eilish
• Best Pop: Jonas Brothers – “Sucker”
• Best Hip Hop: Cardi B – “Money”
• Best R&B: Normani ft. 6lack – “Waves”
• Best K-Pop: BTS ft. Halsey – “Boy With Luv”
• Best Latin: Rosala & J Balvin ft. El Guincho – “Con Altura”
• Best Dance: The Chainsmokers ft. Bebe Rexha – “Call You Mine”
• Best Rock: Panic! At The Disco – “High Hopes”
• Video For Good: Taylor Swift – “You Need to Calm Down”
• Song of Summer: Ariana Grande and Social House – “Boyfriend”
• Best Group: BTS
• Best Power Anthem: Megan Thee Stallion ft. Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign – “Hot Girl Summer”
• Best Direction: Ariana Grande – “thank you, next” Directed by Hannah Lux Davis
• Best Visual Effects: Taylor Swift ft. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco – “ME!” – Visual Effects by Loris Paillier & Lucas Salton for BUF VFX
• Best Editing: Billie Eilish – “Bad Guy” – Editing by Billie Eilish
• Best Art Direction: Ariana Grande – “7 Rings” – Art Direction by John Richoux
• Best Choreography: Rosala & J Balvin ft. El Guincho – “Con Altura” – Choreography by Charm La’Donna
• Best Cinematography: Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello – “Seorita” – Cinematography by Scott Cunningham
• Video Vanguard Award: Missy Elliot
• Fashion Trailblazer: Marc Jacobs