HOLLYWOOD—Oh, I remember the glory days where the MTV Video Music Awards used to be great TV. Man those days have gone past because there is no excitement. It has become a fan voted awards show, which means the popular person wins the big prize, not the most deserving which can be quite frustrating to say the least people.
For the 2022 ceremony we had not one, not two, but three hosts: Nicki Minaj, LL Cool J and Jack Harlow. Let’s just get this out the way, Harlow and Minaj were winners of the night, Harlow won for Best Collaboration with Lil Nas X for “Industry Baby.” Minaj was blessed with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award and that prize is starting to baffle me. I thought this was for musicians that delivered iconic videos. Minaj does not have that many videos that are iconic or outside of the box in my personal opinion, but perhaps if we didn’t give out the award every single year we can honor a true talent with that prize.
Taylor Swift was the big winner of the night claiming the Video of the Year prize for “All Too Well,” a video she directed herself and she even announced that her newest album is slated to drop on October 21. I recall when Video of the Year used to be for the most extravagant or outside the box video. That does not hold true in 2022. Harry Styles won Album of the Year, as expected his fans are grand people.
Lisa won the prize for Best K-Pop over BTS, while BTS won Best Group. Jack Harlow opened the ceremony after bringing out pop princess Fergie for his hit “First Class.” That performance later transitioned to Lizzo hitting the stage to perform “About Damn Time” and she won Best Video For Good. Other winners of the night included Bad Bunny that won Artist of the Year. Song of the Year went to Billie Eilish for “Happier Than Ever.”
Best New Artist went to Dove Cameron. Best Pop Video went to Harry Styles for “As It Was,” while Best Hip-Hop Video went to Nicki Minaj feat. Lil Baby “Do We Have A Problem?” The Red Hot Chili Peppers won Best Rock Video for “Black Summer,” while The Weeknd won Best R&B Video for “Out of Time.” There were plenty of performers throughout the night, most of them actual winners, but nothing spectacular that people were talking about the next day people.
All and all a pretty boring ceremony if I’m being honest, but at the same time, should I have expected anything else from a network that was founded on playing music videos that no longer plays music videos? The focus is on reality series that are not funny, so the dog days of the MTV Video Music Awards being the show people would talk about the next day like when Britney Spears kissed Madonna followed by Christina Aguilera that’s over? How about Miley Cyrus getting a bit too close to singer Robin Thicke? Those moments where you gasp or can’t look away from the TV, MTV doesn’t seem too interested in that anymore.
