Touching tribute to the King of Pop upstaged by Kanye’s award show terrorism
Oh the VMAs! Where do I start? With the passing of Michael Jackson, I was worried that the days of precision choreography, visual feasts for the eyes and pop songs you didn’t mind hearing a zillion times on Top 40 radio were a thing of the past. Thankfully MTV seemed to subscribe to the “go big or go home” philosophy with last night’s Video Music Awards.
Madonna’s lengthy introduction speech aside, the huge array of dancers, choreographers and, of course, Janet Jackson put on an epic show worthy of a king. The sequence when Janet recreated her dance with Michael from their “Scream” music video was especially breathtaking and I’ll admit I might have shed a tear or two.
MTV kept it epic with the gigantic introduction for Russell Brand, which featured Katy Perry and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry. The show was off to a good start. It seemed like it was bigger than ever and with huge stars in the audience and performances by Lady Gaga, Green Day, Beyonce, and Jay-Z on the bill, it looked like this was one MTV award show that was going to exceed all expectations.
And then things took a turn…
The talk of the Twitter town, of course, was Kanye West taking the microphone during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech and proclaiming that Beyonce should have won for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”. Most were outraged that West had hijacked Swift’s moment like some kind of award show terrorist. Pro-Swift and anti-West hashtags began sprouting all over Twitter and soon the entire social media universe was slamming West for literally stealing the show from a teenage girl.
I, on the other hand, was annoyed with West for another reason.
Not only had he taken the thunder from Swift’s award, but he basically turned the entire evening into The Kanye Show with the rude outburst. In the future, do we need undercover FAA Air Marshals with tasers to guard the stage? It was especially insulting because last night’s show contained a touching and spectacular tribute to the last great King of Pop and nobody steals the show from him in my book!
I ask you this: when do we reach the point where enough is enough? West is talented and successful, but it’s like he’s incapable of functioning within society! Let’s not forget that this isn’t the first time he’s hijacked an award show stage or turned an event into an all-about-me ego fest. Worst of all is that it doesn’t even seem natural, like he commands attention without trying, but rather like everything he does is a contrived attempt to stir up some buzz. Was this the last straw? Only time will tell.
