VMA Performance Roundup

Let me just say I was extremely excited for this years Video Music Awards. Not only was I excited because of the immense amount of awards Lady Gaga was nominated and sure to win (8 wins total! Congrats GAGA!) but also because of the performances. I was particularly interested to see both Kanye and Taylor Swift after last years extreme stage faux pas, not to mention Eminem, and many of the other performers. So I will take a few minutes to mention my performance highlights from last night’s music event.

1)   Eminem: When he began singing it almost looked as if he were in rapping in an underground club ala 8 mile. Em did a mash up his two songs Not Afraid and Love the Way You Lie feat Rhianna. Not only was Rhianna probably the best I have ever heard her live, but I was just incredibly impressed by their collaboration. It made me wonder whether or not Rhianna showed up on tour with Eminem, as a guest surprise, because the sheer power of her performance would be sorely missed.

2)   Bieber: Now I know there are about 1,000,000 Bieber haters out there, but I love him. I think he is incredibly talented. I mean there was a reason he went from youtube star to ACTUAL star. Theoretically he is this tween generations Michael Jackson (of the Jackson 5, not solo career). I can admit, his dance moves leave a lot to be desired, especially in front of really talented dancers. My favorite part of his performance was how his dance moves were out shown by actual children. Hilarious.  

3)   Usher: It happens to be that I HATE the song OMG so I wasn’t really looking forward to this performance much. I have to say Usher surprised me by starting with DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again. His performance was mostly dance moves, which were great. But, I found his performance to seem the most unnatural/ not believable live.

4)   Florence and the Machine: I was pretty excited to hear Florence, because her voice is ridiculously unique and I find it’s hard to translate that uniqueness while still sounding as good live. Staying true to herself, Florence was good. Not as good as the recorded version, but still good. To top that, the bizarre dancers and choir were a page out of her music video. She also didn’t need a lot of crazy dancing to make this performance a great one.

5)   Taylor Swift: Most people who know me know of my extreme dislike for Taylor, and my crazy love for Kanye. When this happened last year I was disappointed in Kanye and sad for Taylor, but I didn’t feel the need to shun Kanye like most others did. In my mind this was not a Chris brown situation. Nevertheless I was proud of how Taylor handled herself tonight. She wrote a song about the situation Innocent referring to Kanye’s innocence. I’m still not in love with her voice or her songwriting ability, but I was glad at how well she handled herself in the face of all that drama.

6)   Drake: Drake performed the new song Fancy with Mary J Blige. I hadn’t heard this song ever before, which I was surprised about. The beginning started out amazing. Mary J sounded fabulous as ever. My problem with Drake is that I don’t think he is one of the greatest rappers of our generation. In fact he pales in comparison to Eminem.

7)   B.O.B/Hayley Williams: Ok, so here’s my deal with these performances. I could really take or leave B.O.B always. His songs aren’t so great to me. I know a lot of people like Airplanes, and I really should like it because I love Paramore, but I don’t like it that much. B.O.B reminds me of a pale imitation of T.I who I also love. So this mash up was only ok for me. My favorite part of the entire performance was when Hayley started singing The Only Exception which is my favorite song off of Paramore’s most recent album. In fact I have been recommending this song to my friends since the albums release in late 2009. All I can say is that Paramore saved this performance for me.

8)   Linkin Park: Linkin Park sang the song Catalyst. Honestly I don’t like this song. Linkin Park is always hit or miss for me. I never love their entire album and need to be really in the mood to hear one of their songs. This time I guess I wasn’t in the mood because I wasn’t really into this performance at all.

9)   Kanye West: Kanye sang the song Runaway and, not so surprisingly, I loved it. I loved how he began the song alone in a stage of black and white while he was dressed in red. I loved how he kind of explained or showed how much of a douche he was, and I was just frankly impressed with the entire song. It definitely made me excited for his new album.

For full High Quality versions of last nights performances check out MTV.com. What were your favorite moments at MTV’s VMAS?