7 VMA Moments Everyone Is Talking About

Miley Cyrus twerks, *NSYNC reunites, and more from the Video Music Awards
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 26, 2013 7:09 AM CDT

Pole dance? That's so 2009. Miley Cyrus outdid herself at the MTV Video Music Awards last night with a twerking performance that left the audience feeling violated, Australia's News Network reports. Cyrus started out wearing practically nothing, then managed to find a way to strip down even further from there. She spent much of the performance with her tongue sticking out and, when Robin Thicke took the stage for a duet, she added a foam finger that, of course, she used rather suggestively. "Raise your hand if you feel personally victimized by Miley Cyrus' VMA performance," reads one representative tweet. (If you can't handle actually watching the video, click for some GIFs that sum it up.) More big talkers from last night's awards:

  • Taylor Swift could not let an opportunity to publicly shame ex Harry Styles pass her by, the Daily Mail reports. Upon winning Best Female Video for "I Knew You Were Trouble," reportedly inspired by her relationship with the One Direction boy bander, Swift ended her acceptance speech with, "I also want to thank the person who inspired this song, who knows exactly who he is, because now I've got one of these!" The camera, of course, then panned to Styles. Earlier, when One Direction presented an award, Swift was captured appearing to mouth the words, "Shut the f--- up."
  • As promised, *NSYNC reunited ... for 90 seconds, which came in the middle of Justin Timberlake's epic 15-minute performance, Rolling Stone reports. Timberlake won the big Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award, and said he wanted to "share" it with his former bandmates ... but "we can keep it at my house," he added.
  • Lady Gaga wore a clamshell bra and gave her first big performance since her hip surgery, though she appeared to be lip-syncing, Rolling Stone notes. Gawker has a fantastic screenshot of Will Smith and family reacting to her performance.
  • Katy Perry wore a multicolored grill and closed the show by performing "Roar" in a boxing ring under the Brooklyn Bridge.
  • The night's biggest winners were Timberlake (who also won Video of the Year) and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who won Best Hip-Hop Video for "Can't Hold Us" and Best Video With a Social Message for gay rights anthem "Same Love." The duo performed the song along with Mary Lambert and, in a surprise appearance, Jennifer Hudson, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "To watch this song in the last year spread across the world is a testament to what is happening right now in America on the forefront of equality," Macklemore said while accepting the award.
  • And one moment that had everyone talking because it didn't happen: Daft Punk was supposed to offer up a "surprise" performance (in fact, that's why they bailed on Stephen Colbert earlier this month), but that never came to pass, the Huffington Post reports (though the group did present the aforementioned award to Swift).

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X