The VMA's this year were unparalleled to any other VMA's that I have ever seen in that this year was the year of women. Women of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds were celebrated and it was an incredible thing to see.
The best performances of the night were all so diverse yet so immersed in one thing: pure unadulterated girl power. The opening performance was Rihanna who is the queen of all that is what it means to be a strong, sexy, and intelligent woman. She followed up with three incredible performances after the opening (prior to her receiving the Michael Jackson Vanguard award) and never, was the next performance a let down from the previous, she raised the bar higher and higher with each set she performed. Her sets were all medleys of her previous and current hits, reminding us of why and how the world fell in love with RiRi.
After the opening came Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj (my personal favorite) performing Ariana's new single "Side to Side." The whole message of the song is something quite X-rated, but in a world of male dominance and patriarchy, it reminded us that women too can be both a boss and sexy simultaneously without any need for sexist insults to be hurled their way.
Now we come to Beyoncé. ALL HAIL BEYONCÉ. Seriously. This woman pulled off a surprise performance and not only that, she pulled off a fifteen minute set and every step of the way I was glued to the screen and never lost interest. Artists who have had fifteen minute sets in previous years would have lost my interest in about three minutes or even less, but that magical woman never ceases to amaze me. After Beyonce's set viewers wondered 'who in the world could be able to top that?' I believe that a certain Ms. Britney Spears did just that.
Though Britney's set was not fifteen minutes long or anything like Beyoncé's, what you must realize is that Britney's return to the VMA's had much more meaning than any other performance. The last time that the world saw Britney it was after an unfortunate demise in the public eye and it was supposed to be her triumphant return at the VMA's in 2007. This year, after a nine year halt, Britney successfully made her return and she did it so beautifully. She performed a mix of her latest single "Make Me" featuring G-Eazy and G-Eazy's latest single "Me, Myself, and I." Despite all the criticism because of her infamous lip-syncing, Britney dazzled her fans and audience because of the fact that she conquered the stage that nine years previous had destroyed her.
Besides the performances, there were many other appearances made by lovely ladies like Ashley Graham, Alicia Keys (who beautifully showed up without a stitch of makeup), and the USA Women's Gymnastics team, who completely dominated the 2016 Rio Olympics.
All in all, the 2016 VMA's was a great show with of course the inevitable quirks and awkwardness that comes with a live show but the one thing to take away from this year's show is that the women that we have in the music industry right now are giving us exactly what we need to make strides in the future for equality.
