With cigarette smoke clearly visible in the spot light, MTV’s 2011 Video Music Awards were opened by Lady Gaga attired in an outfit completely different than her infamous meat dress. Not even sporting a dress, Gaga instead wore a suit with a grimy white T-shirt, and slicked back hair.
Claiming to be Lady Gaga’s ex-boyfriend, “he” performed her new song “You and I” on the piano when Queen’s Brian May entered the stage with a guitar solo. Many viewers loved the performance, like Katy Perry, though many, such as Britney Spears, were shocked.
“Lady Gaga’s performance this year was mind blowing. The fact that she was able to top her costume last year is over the top by itself,” junior Andrew Steers said. “The combination of her voice and new attire were more than enough to start the VMAs off on a good note.”
With the event taking place just a month after Amy Winehouse’s death, Tony Bennett, Russell Brand, and Bruno Mars made tributes in her honor. With the background lit up by a slide show of Amy’s pictures, Mars preformed The Zutons’ “Valerie”, which Amy had covered herself. Towards the end of the song, he added the lyrics “Say Amy, oh Amy, I love you darling, I love you darling, Say Amy, whoa Amy, we’ll miss you baby”.
“I thought his performance was really nice because he had done it all for Amy, but I really liked that he tried doing something nice and did amazing at it,” senior Anthony Sinclair said.
There were a variety of other noteworthy moments during the show, such as Adele’s performance. She sang a version of “Someone Like You” and it was overall well received by fans. Later on throughout the night Adele won multiple awards for “Rolling In The Deep,” “Best Editing,” “Best Art Direction,” and “Best Cinematography.”
“The song she did, I did not like as much as her past songs, or her most famous one ‘Rolling in the Deep.’ That’s my favorite out of all her songs, but it was still a good performance,” junior Natelie Yepez said.
The star with the performance that claimed the spotlight though was Beyonce. Singing her “Love on Top,” the celebrity paused to say “I want you to feel the love that’s growing inside of me.” At the end, she popped open her purple sequined Dolce and Gabbana jacket to reveal her black maternity pants covering a baby bump. Just like that, she announced worldwide that she was pregnant. Cameras quickly turned to husband Jay-Z’s, whose face was lit up with pride, and his friend Kanye West who congratulated him by giving him a robust pat on the back.
“Her [Beyonce’s] performance was great and then when she announced her pregnancy I was like ‘Wow, I didn’t see that coming.’ I think the VMA’s this year were good but I think it can be topped next year,” sophomore Kara Brown said. “Lady Gaga will do something crazier and hopefully there will be more live performances.”
