On Monday August 26, MTV's video music awards took place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. I decided to take the time and watch this year's vma's since I'm an entertainment news junkie and these are the events I live for. To say the least, I was not disappointed. The VMA's are household in the entertainment industry, and we've seen some iconic performances throughout the years.
We saw Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes sucking face on camera, celebrities dancing in the crowds, the fashion, and who attended the red carpet. Throughout all of that, during the remainder of the show I was stunned by one performer. Normani. Now, if you don't know who Normani is, then you are very late and have been missing out; here's some background information on the up and coming star.
Normani is a singer-songwriter and dancer who gained prominence in 2012 competing on America's version of the competition show, the X-factor. There she was put into a group you may know as, "Fifth-Harmony" and since then we've come to know her as a dancing queen!
The girl group since split in March, 2018 to pursue solo careers, leaving Normani time to develop as a solo act. In 2018 she released a single in collaboration with singer Khalid called "Love Lies" which was also on the soundtrack of the coming of age movie "Love Simon."
The singer performed "Love Lies" at the 2018 Billboard music awards and it was absolutely ICONIC. I remember first watching her performance and I was stunned at how amazing her dancing and choreography was. On August 16, Normani released her highly anticipated music video for her new single "Motivation" which received significant praise across social media.
I knew her performance was going to be good, especially after watching her music video, which paid homage to Beyonce's crazy in love music video, and made the 11-year-old in me internally scream. I didn't realize Normani performing "motivation" live would be a whole other experience I personally needed in my life. She begins her performance sitting on a basketball hoop, yes you read that correctly. The entire performance was filled with splits, flips, hip-hop dancing, twerking and basically everything a show needs. Need you mind that this was her first time performing as a solo act, breaking out at the VMA's puts a lot of pressure on a performer. Even with wardrobe and audio malfunctions Normani did what she had to do and made a statement.
Pop music is a genre that we don't see a lot of black women participating in, the fact that Normani, a dark-skinned african-american woman is taking over the pop world is inspiring! Young black girls finally have their own pop princess to look up to; I wish I had a Normani when I was in my adolescent years. Seeing her being one of the first to break out in the genre is a huge step in pop and black culture. This is a win for black girls all around the world to show that we can do anything and not be pressured into doing r&b and hip-hop (and there's nothing wrong with these genres) but stepping out of that comfort zone and doing something different makes you stand out in a competitive industry.
All I'm saying is, we need to keep our attention on Normani. She's a star and this is just the beginning of a life-long career for her, WE STAN!
