The 2009 VMA's: The Highlights, And Sadly The Lowlights

The VMA's have created quite the buzz this year in the aftermath of one of the most memorable shows in a long time.

The show opened with Madonna giving a sincere and heartfelt speech about her friend Michael Jackson who she said she "abandoned" in the later years of his life. She drew many comparisons to herself and the late King of Pop who she admitted received the "the shorter end of the stick". Madonna spoke of his career, their friendship, his heroism, and her admiration of the man that he was and tried so hard to be. Sister Janet paid homage to her brother through dance channeling Michael throughout her performance. At the end of tribute, Janet looked up, as if to seek approval from her older brother and I have no doubt he was smiling.

The caliente Shakira and New Moon's Taylor Lautner came out to present the female video of the year award, and the nominees were: Katy Perry for "Hot N' Cold", Kelly Clarkson for "My Life Would Suck Without You", Lady Gaga for "Poker Face", Pink for "So What", and Taylor Swift for "You Belong With Me". Taylor Swift was announced as the winner and deservedly so, all of the ladies in this category had a great year. And then, something beyond strange happened, as Taylor was about to give her acceptance speech, Kanye West (I know what you're thinking, oh no, not again!) appeared onstage and said Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. Beyonce looked on, mortified and completely unsuspecting, and then Kanye handed the mic back to Taylor and walked off the stage. Taylor was left looking both confused and embarrassed, at that moment, my heart sank, and then my anger for Kanye set in.

Not long after the debacle, Taylor performed her moonman winning song, in a New York subway. I know I was looking to see if her performance was shaky at all, but it wasn't, it was strong, and I could not be more proud of her making a positive out of a negative. The high energy performance that featured lots of fans, and lots of movement turned out to be a highlight of the night.

I like Lady Gaga's music, but her performance was anemic and bloody at best. She was wearing white underwear onstage while her male dancers dawned women's panties and thongs on their faces. "Paparazzi" is a great song, but Gaga kind of ruined it for me, now when I think of it or hear it, I will see the picture of her in my mind smearing blood all over her stomach and face. Yuck! My question to Gaga is, do you think the more odd, weird, and crazy you are that it makes you were artsy or trendy? Stop trying so hard! What would be really interesting is if you acted normal for once.

Nelly and Kristin Cavallari came out to present the Best Pop Video, and the following were the nominees, Beyonce for "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)", Britney Spears for "Womanizer", Cobra Starship for "Good Girls Go Bad", Lady Gaga for "Poker Face", and Wisin Y Yandel for "Abusadora". Britney won the moonman for "Womanizer" and accepted it from backstage at her tour. Welcome back Brit, you really deserved this award, and it shows that through hard work and perseverance, good things happen.

Neyo and the gorgeous Chace Crawford introduced Beyonce who performed her nominated song, "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)". The performance was like a reenactment of B's video, complete with lots of attitude, hips, and a chorus for single women everywhere.

I just wanted to quickly at this point mention fashion faux pas, Jennifer Lopez, Cassie, and Katy Perry's dresses were less then perfect (kinda heinous actually). Lady Gaga tried way too hard to be cool from her red carpet concoction to her performance outfit to the red mess that she accepted her best new artist award in for "Poker Face".

Pink's performance of "Sober" was so impressive that I watched it more than once. She sang live, swinging from trapeze and doing flips; she stopped at one point to catch her breath and appropriately finished big. I especially loved Pink's daring costume complete with a sparkly pink heart pasty.

Andy Samberg and Jimmy Fallon presented the video of the year to Beyonce for her "Single Ladies" video. The other nominee's included Britney Spears for "Womanizer", Eminem for "We Made You", Kanye West (the loser of the night) for "Love Lockdown" and Lady Gaga for "poker Face". The classy Beyonce spoke of first being nominated for a VMA at the age of 17 when she was a part of Destiny's Child and how much it meant to her. She invited Taylor Swift out to the stage to give the acceptance speech that she couldn't give before. The two strong ladies looked at each other with a mutual admiration and hugged.

Alicia Keys and Jay Z brought the house down with "Empire State of Mind" off Jay's "The Blueprint 3". Ms. Key's dazzled on the piano as always and sang a catchy hook as Jay showed us why he remains one of the best. Loving wife Beyonce looked on and sang along with Key's and danced from her seat as she smiled from ear to ear.

Kanye West apologized via his blog after the show was over but for me it was too little, too late. How many bonehead things has he done before that we have forgiven him for? We mourned for him and had compassion when he lost his beloved mother. I agree with something that I heard someone else say, if Kanye disagrees with the winners (which are voted on by the public, just so everyone knows) why doesn't he have his own Kanye West award show and broadcast it from his website. But seriously Kanye, first off, if this was an issue of you having too much to drink then you need to learn how to handle your liquor. Second, are you two? you humiliated a teenager for goodness sake; there was absolutely no need for that. No matter how good your music is (and by the way, you are not, nor will you ever be, better than Michael Jackson), it does not excuse your bad behavior. I think that some of the celebs said it best:

Kelly Clarkson wrote on her website:

"Dear Kanye, what happened to you as a child?? Did you not get hugged enough?? Something must have happened to make you this way and I think we're all just curious as to what would make a grown man go on national television and make a talented artist, let alone teenager, feel like sh--. I mean, I've seen you do some pretty sh---y things, but you just keep amazing me with your tactless, a--hole ways. It's absolutely fascinating how much I don't like you. I like everyone. I even like my a--hole ex that cheated on me over you ... which is pretty odd since I don't even personally know you. The best part of this evening is that you weren't even up for THIS award and yet you still have a problem with the outcome. Is winning a Moonman that much of a life goal?? You can have mine if it will shut you up. Is it that important, really??
"I was actually nominated in the same category that Taylor won, and I was excited for her ... so why can't you be??" the letter continued. "I'm not even mad at you for being an a--hole ... I just pity you because you're a sad human being. On a side note, Beyoncé has always been a class act and proved again tonight that she still is. Go TEXAS!! Taylor Swift, you outsell him ... that's why he's bitter. You know I love your work! Keep it up girl!"

Kellie Pickler tweeted:

"Tator Tot, you handled yourself with Grace. Kanye, go grow some f-ing balls, bi---! don't mess w/my lil sis!!"

Katy Perry tweeted:

F++K U KANYE. IT'S LIKE U STEPPED ON A KITTEN.

Pink tweeted (more than once):

Kanye West is the biggest piece of sh-- on earth. Quote me. My heart goes out to Taylor Swift. She is a sweet and talented girl and deserved her moment. She should know we all love her. Beyonce is a classy lady. I feel for her, too. Its not her fault at all, and her and taylor did their thing. And douche bag got kicked out. HA

Donald Trump claims that Kanye didn't even care less if Beyonce won or not and that he just did it for "grandstanding and to get attention".