47 Strange and Awesome Moments in VMA History
Award shows don't always make for the most entertaining TV—but the VMAs actually do.
Award shows don't always make for most entertaining hours of television—but MTV's Video Music Awards actually do. Each year, the VMAs are reliably one of the most "fun" award shows, promising both outrageous red carpet fashion (like Rose McGowan's naked dress in 1998 or Lil' Kim's purple pasty in 1999) and live performances that everyone will be talking about the next day (like Beyoncé's 16-minute medley in 2015). Oh! And there's also all the other eventful stuff, like Kanye interrupting Taylor, and Beyoncé announcing her pregnancy to the world. (Yep, that happened.) Here, in advance of Sunday night's show, we recap the 46 best, weirdest, and most memorable moments in VMA history.
2016: Drake Loves Rihanna
When he presented Rihanna with the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award, Drake proclaimed, "She is someone I have been in love with since I was 22 years old." But it became a little awkward when he went to kiss Rih, and she swerved at the last second.
2015: Temporary Truce, Part 2
After getting into it on Twitter, Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift buried the hatchet to open the 2015 VMAs, with Nicki bringing Taylor onstage with her to perform "The Night Is Still Young" and "Bad Blood."
2012: The Olympic Back-Up Dancer
Alicia Keys doesn't usually do crazy dance moves during her performances, so she called someone else in to tackle the cool choreography: Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas, who tumbled all over that VMA stage. Backflips, front flips, all the flips and handsprings. Brilliant.
2009: "Imma let you finish but…"
Ahh, the original source of the bad blood between Kanye West and Taylor Swift. (In case you missed all headlines in fall 2009, here's what went down: During Taylor's acceptance speech for Best Female Video, Kanye ambushed her on stage, took the microphone, and announced "Yo Tay, I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!")
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