Last night I watched the MTV Video Music Awards, as I had fallen out of the habit over the last few years. While host Chelsea Handler bombed in one of the worst hostings of an award show I've ever seen, the night was not without its merits, if only a few. First and foremost was the night's closing performance. The publicly shamed Kanye West, who fell from grace last year after interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech - something that I really can't believe we're all still talking about, closed the show out with an outstanding performance of a new song called "Runaway". Decked out in bright red and gold chains, West opened the song manually mixing samples and clips before taking the mic. Later joined by Clipse's Pusha T, the song was a welcomed resurgence after the dismal autotuned mess of 808s And Heatbreaks.
Lady Gaga won a bunch of awards, all of which she seemed to get a bit too emotional over (I guess the VMAs mean more now than they did when I was a kid), each acceptance wearing a different dress. It was most fitting that Cher would present the award for Video Of The Year to Gaga, as it seems like a gimme that she will one day be performing "Pokerface" in front of a middle aged Las Vegas nightclub audience (this of course is not a knock to Ms. Germanotta, as I am a fan of both her records, but her gaudy stage show seems to be aimed at being Madonna, but coming off more like late period Cher).
The performance I was most excited for, I was completely robbed of by MTV. Swedish pop star Robyn was set to perform her amazing dance/torch song, "Dancing On My Own", but was only allotted time to perform one chorus. For the few seconds she was on, we did get to hear the backing track in remixed form, it's four on the floor pulse beat replaced with a sticky electronic dub stomp. For the time it was on, it was pretty cool, but my excitement about seeing Robyn exposed to a larger audience was squashed. Perhaps it's for the best.
Monday, September 13, 2010
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