Swift forgives Kanye as MTV Awards go Gaga

Taylor Swift absolved Kanye West of last year’s on-stage sin with one sombre song, and West, also in song, beat himself up once again over his misbehaviour.

Mon, 13 Sep, 2010 - 10:08

Taylor Swift absolved Kanye West of last year’s on-stage sin with one sombre song, and West, also in song, beat himself up once again over his misbehaviour.

The Swift-West drama took centre stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, with both superstars either addressing or dancing around the incident that will not die.

Both dramatic performances delivered on pre-show hype of a Kanye-Taylor sequel and overshadowed the evening’s other moments, including Lady Gaga’s eight-win sweep. Among her awards was video of the year for Bad Romance.

The stage for both songs was set last year, when West interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech, saying her trophy should have gone to Beyonce.

The incident left Swift with hurt feelings, but West was the one who was seriously damaged, as intense backlash made him Mr Unpopularity.

While West did not address the trophy-gate incident directly on-stage, he rapped and sang a song that mocked the boorish behaviour that upstaged his music: “I always find something wrong; you’ve been putting up with my (expletive) for too long,” he said, before launching into an unprintable chorus, which included the line: “Let’s have a toast to scumbags.”

While Swift is known for skewering those who have done her wrong in song, for West, she offered an olive branch with her song Innocent, written earlier this year.

She sang: “Everyone of us has messed up, too ... I hope you remember today is never too late to be brand new.”

The 20-year-old’s poignant and powerful ode didn’t criticise West. Instead she sympathised with his difficult time in the spotlight and West’s own admissions that his ego often gets in his own way.

“Thirty-two and still growing up now; who you are is not what you did,” she sang softly, adding: “You’re still an innocent.”

Gaga accepted her video of the year award with an outfit sure to anger animal rights activists: a dress and hat made of what seemed to be cuts of raw beef, including a meat purse. It was one of her three typically outrageous outfits of the evening.

Cher – an over-the-top diva from a different era – gave Gaga her award and noted she had been raising eyebrows while Lady Gaga “was still Baby Gaga”.

Gaga was teary-eyed when accepting her trophies, and sang the title of her new album as she accepted the last award: Born This Way.

Compared to the pathos of Swift and West, there were few other highlights, despite performances from Usher, Eminem and Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Linkin Park, and appearances by Nicki Minaj and the cast of MTV’s own Jersey Shore.

Host Chelsea Handler gave the show its traditional bawdiness, though her jokes often fell flat.

A pre-taped portion of her opening featured the host getting spanked multiple times by show participants in a backstage hallway before running into the recently freed Lindsay Lohan, who also gave her a smack.

“Have you been drinking?” Lohan demanded from Handler. “Do you think anyone wants to work with a drunk? Take it from me! They don’t!”

Later, on stage, Handler implored the all-star audience to get wild.

“I want to encourage everybody to be on their worst behaviour,” she said. “I want to turn this mother out. ... Get your tongues ready because I want those tongues shoved in places they’re not supposed to be.”

But it was a relatively tame night; perhaps, given West’s antics last year, the stars had learned a lesson.

Here is a list of winners from the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles:

:: Collaboration: Lady Gaga featuring Beyonce, Telephone

:: Female video: Lady Gaga, Bad Romance

:: Male video: Eminem, Not Afraid

:: Hip-hop video: Eminem, Not Afraid

:: New artist: Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris, Baby

:: Pop video: Lady Gaga, Bad Romance

:: Rock video: 30 Seconds to Mars, Kings and Queens

:: Dance music video: Lady Gaga, Bad Romance

:: Art direction: Florence and the Machine, Dog Days Are Over

:: Choreography: Lady Gaga, Bad Romance