It’s that time of year again! All eyes are on the 2021 edition of the Video Music Awards. The fan-voted event took place on September 12, 2021, which was hosted in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The event was hosted by the American Singer and Rapper Doja Cat – whose hosting was announced in late August of 2021. Each award given held a unique astronaut design, in which this year’s design was dedicated to MTV’s 40th anniversary.
All the fun started on the red carpet – a few highlights included Lil Nas X, dressed in a lavender Atelier Versace set; Normani, who dressed in a Patrycja Pagas structured white outfit; and Tinashe, whose look was inspired by 2000s Brittany and X-Tina style.
The event kicked off with three pre-show performances – Polo G, who performed his hit single, “Rapstar,” Kim Petras, who performed, “Future Starts Now,” and the Swedish House Mafia, who performed, “It Gets Better” and “Lifetime.” In addition, a few mid-show performances included Camilla Cabello performance of “Don’t Go Yet,” Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow — “Industry Baby,” a joint performance of Justin Beiber and The Kid Laroi – “Stay” and “Ghost,” Twenty One Pilots – “Saturday,” and many more.
And of course, the VMA awards themselves, which had twenty-two different categories this year. Starting off, the Video of the Year category was won by Lil Nas X for “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name).” Artist of the Year was won by Justin Bieber, whose songs had twenty-four top tens, and seven number ones. The song of the year was taken by Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License.” The Best New Artist was also won by Olivia Rodrigo, whose song “Drivers License” hit over 285,000,000 views on youtube, and reached 1 billion streams on Spotify. Another win was taken by Olivia Rodrigo: Push Performance of the Year, followed by BTS, who won Group of the Year. Best Breakthrough Song was won by Claire Rosinkranz for “Backyard Boy.” Best Collaboration was won by Doja Cat and SZA for their hit song, “Kiss Me More.” For Best Pop, Justin Bieber won for his song, “Peaches.” Best Hip-Hop was won by Travis Scott, Young Thug, and M.I.A for their song “FRANCHISE.” For Best Rock, John Mayer won for “Last Train Home”. In the Best Alternative category, Machine Gun Kelly and Blackbear won for their hit, “My Ex’s Best Friend.” In Best Latin, Billie Eilish and ROSALÍA won for their song, “Lo Vas A Olvidar,” which premiered on the show, “Euphoria.” Best R&B was won by Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, and Silk Sonic – “Leave The Door Open.” For Best K-Pop, BTS won for their song, “Butter.” Another win for Billie Eilish, who won Video For Good, for her song, “Your Power”. Best direction was won by Lil Nas X for, “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” – Directed by Lil Nas X and Tanu Munio. Beyoncé won for Best Cinematography with “BROWN SKIN GIRL” – with cinematography from Benoit Soler, Malik H. Sayeed, Mohammed Atta Ahmed, Santiago Gonzalez, and Ryan Helfant. For Best Art Direction – Saweetie and Doja Cat won for her song “Best Friend.” Lil Nas X takes another win for Best Visual Effects – “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name).” For Best Choreography, Harry Styles won for his song, “ Treat People With Kindness” – Choreo by Paul Roberts. Concluding, Best Editing was won by Bruno Mars for “Leave The door Open,” with editing done by Troy Charbonnet.
With the varying artists, music, and performances, the 2021 VMAs was an event to never forget. See you at next year’s VMAs in August 2022!
Sources:
https://www.mtv.com/vma/performers
2021 MTV Video Music Awards – Wikipedia
