MTV celebrated music’s biggest videos with this year’s Video Music Awards (VMA’s). The 2022 MTV VMAs took place live at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey with co-hosts LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj, and Jack Harlow.
This year, Nicki Minaj was presented the prestiges Vanguard Award. Nicki opened award presentation with 10-minute medley with a performance of “Roman’s Revenge” before segueing into “Monster”, “Beez In The Trap”, “Chun Li”, “Anaconda”, “Moment 4 Life”, “Super Bass”, and her latest single, “Super Freaky Girl“.
Following her legendary performance, the 39-year-old rap star was presented her Vanguard trophy by a few of her fans, before the Queen gave an emotional accepting speech by thanking her fans, fellow peers, her late father, and others who have passed. Nicki also won the Best Hip Hop award for her Lil Baby-collaboration, “Do We Have A Problem?”
Jack Harlow, who won took home four awards, kicked off the ceremony with an epic performance of “First Class” alongside surprise guest Fergie, who also performed “Glamorous”, her hit song Jack sampled from. “First Class also won the Song Of The Summer award. After the performance, Jack Harlow joined Lil Nas X on stage for their Best Collaboration award for “Industry Baby”. The song also won both Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects awards.
Eminem and Snoop Dogg reunited on the VMA stage with a partial-animated performance of “From The D To The LBC”. Latto took the throne with a lavish performance of “It’s Givin”. Lizzo gave a show-stopping performance of “About Damn Time” and “2 Be Loved (Am I Ready)”, while Marshmello and Khalid rocked the arena with hit “Numb”. Reggaetón was represented respectfully with J Balvin and Ryan Castro’s breath-taking performance of “Nivel De Perreo” and Bad Bunny’s blazing performance of “Titi Me Pregunto” from New York City’s Yankee stadium.
From the outdoor stage, JID repped the A with a lively medley of “Dance Now” and “Surround Sound” and Flo Milli brought the energy with “Conceited”.
Other wins throughout the night included The Weeknd’s “Out Of Time” winning Best R&B, Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” taking the Video For Good award, and Doja Cat’s “Woman” winning Best Choreography.
