Taylor Swift took property the night’s most important prize – and introduced a new album – in the course of the 2022 MTV Video clip Audio Awards, a chaotic, bleep-significant show that nodded to songs phenomena past and existing, and featured a surprise physical appearance by Johnny Depp.
Swift, who received ideal longform movie and video of the year for All As well Well (10 Minute Model) for her 2021 re-recorded album Red, was the only artist to double-up on televised awards. Across 3 hrs, MTV moonmen statues went to field veterans such as Nicki Minaj (ideal hip-hop) and the Pink Sizzling Chili Peppers (best rock) non-English superstars these types of as Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny (artist of the 12 months) and Blackpink’s Lisa (very best K-pop) and more recent faces Jack Harlow (music of summer months), Lil Nas X (very best collaboration, with Harlow, for Industry Newborn) and Dove Cameron, a previous Disney youngster star turned actor, who shocked some to acquire best new artist.
Swift observed that the last class of the evening, video of the yr, was historic, as “for the initial time in VMA historical past, four of the directors nominated in the video clip of the 12 months category are women.” The pop star claimed her supporters had “emboldened” her to re-record her very first 5 albums, as aspect of a dispute with her former history label, and utilized the speech to announce a “brand new album” that will be unveiled 21 Oct.
Swift is the only artist to gain a third movie of the yr trophy, and the 1st to earn for a video clip she directed herself. She won formerly in 2015 for Undesirable Blood and 2019 for You Will need to Serene Down.
The spectre of virality hung over the ceremony in Newark, New Jersey which, immediately after two reasonably buttoned-up (and Covid-straitened) yrs, swerved into raunchy, unpredictable, self-consciously forward-considering territory. Snoop Dogg and Eminem carried out their new track From the D 2 the LBC mostly in the metaverse, along with Bored Ape NFTs. Adverts for sponsor Doritos appeared on stage considerably a lot more than LL Great J, a person of 3 “emcees” alongside with rappers Jack Harlow and Nicki Minaj. Several performances, together with Minaj’s and J Balvin’s, integrated holographic factors.
In a controversial transfer seemingly specific at building world-wide-web chatter, Johnny Depp produced quite a few shock cameos, his head digitally superimposed on the helmet of MTV’s floating astronaut mascot. His physical appearance arrived practically a few months after his victory in a very community defamation trial towards his ex-spouse Amber Read that created coverage some criticised as encouraging “an orgy of misogyny”.
The 59-calendar year-outdated actor, who joked to the crowd exterior the Prudential Middle that he “needed the work”, appeared later on in the telecast to say he’s “available for birthdays, barmitzvahs, batmitzvahs, weddings, wakes, any old detail you need”.
The bleep-hefty telecast offered a great deal of risque moments. Lizzo, accepting the video for fantastic award for her song About Damn Time, shouted down “all the bitches who received a thing to say about me in the press” with “bitch I’m profitable, hoe!” The digicam panned out to generic stadium pictures for seconds at a time throughout Måneskin’s efficiency as direct singer Damiano Damon gyrated in assless chaps. And the Pink Incredibly hot Chili Pepper bassist Flea’s thank you to drummer Chad Smith was practically entirely censored.
There have been quite a few nods to musical legacy Harlow opened the present with his tune 1st Class, an interpolation of Fergie’s 2006 strike Glamorous alongside the previous Black Eyed Peas member herself. There had been not 1 but two life time accomplishment awards, supplied to the Purple Hot Chili Peppers and Minaj.
The band executed their new single Black Summer and their 2002 hit Cannot Quit right before accepting the World wide Icon award, celebrating their almost 40-12 months job. Lead singer Anthony Kiedis thanked “the sassy mistress regarded as MTV for supporting us for 1,000 decades or more” though Flea, in an effusive and curse-laden addition, reported he beloved “cockroaches and dust and trees, and each individual human currently being … deer and deer antlers, and birds and sky”.
In a fittingly incredibly hot pink-themed medley, Minaj dipped into around a 10 years of hits, adopted by a scattered acceptance speech in which the 39-year-previous Trinidadian-American rapper, clearly anxious, at one particular place walked away from the podium to retrieve her cell phone from an assistant.
“I desire that Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson ended up in this article,” Minaj mentioned in her speech. “I desire that folks experienced recognized what they intended and what they were being heading by way of. I want persons took mental wellness seriously, even for the persons that you assume have the great lives.”
She brought the demonstrate property with “stay tremendous freaky, have excellent vagina, I like you” – a fitting end to a strange, profane night.
