Listen Live
Fantastic Voyage Generic Graphics Updated Nov 2023
Black America Web Featured Video
CLOSE

Bow down: Beyonce was the reigning queen of Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards.

The diva closed the awards show with an epic nearly 20-minute performance. She was joined onstage by her beaming husband and daughter which brought her to tears, amid the numerous rumors surrounding her marriage.

Beyonce sang and danced in a metallic leotard while Blue Ivy and Jay Z watched from their seats as the diva declared: “MTV, welcome to my world.”

As Beyonce accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award at The Forum in Inglewood, California, she kissed her daughter and husband Jay Z, who called her the “greatest living entertainer.”

“I’m so full. I have nothing to say but I am filled with so much gratitude,” she told the cheering crowd as they chanted her name repeatedly.

Her performance easily outdid her competition throughout the night, though Beyonce lost Video of the Year, which instead went to a teary Miley Cyrus who let a homeless man accept her award for video of the year. It was in sharp contrast to the 2013 VMAs, when Cyrus twerked and danced shockingly onstage.

“Thank y’all, my name is Jesse and I accepting this award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving, lost and scared for their lives right now. I know this because I am one of these people,” he said, as Cyrus looked on. “Though I may have been invisible to you in the streets, I have a lot of the same dreams that brought many of you here tonight.”

Cyrus’ decision to let someone else accept her award to promote a cause was reminiscent of Marlon Brando’s 1973 Academy Awards best actor win, when he gave a Native American activist the stage rather than accept his Oscar trophy.

The two-hour show was tamer than past VMAs: the most shocking moment was Nicki Minaj‘s rump-shaking during her performance of “Anaconda” in the show’s first minutes and her wardrobe malfunction when she joined Ariana Grande and Jessie J for “Bang, Bang.”

“It felt amazing to open the show, and we ran out of time getting the dress zipped up,” Minaj said backstage.

Taylor Swift was a crowd favorite when she performed her new single “Shake It Off” in shimmery shorts and a crop top. She got to the top of the stage, and as her tuxedoed male background dancers stood with their arms wide open waiting for Swift to jump she said, “One second. I don’t care if it’s the VMAs. I’m not jumping off there.”

She continued: “It’s all kinds of people getting bitten by snakes. Dangerous.”

1 2Next page »