Pink, Kendrick Lamar, and social issues highlight the 2017 MTV VMAs
The 2017 MTV VMAs were on fire, especially for Kendrick Lamar, who won Best Hip-Hop Video and Video of the Year, along with four other production awards for his hit “Humble.”
There was also lots of music to be had as Taylor Swift premiered her new shade-throwing video for “Look What You Made Me Do.” Rod Stewart grabbed his platinum sports coat and joined DNCE onstage to find out if people still want his body and think he’s sexy.
Like many award shows as of late, the VMAs played host to many social and political issues. And after the tragic events in Charlottesville, Robert E. Lee’s descendant Robert Lee IV and Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, took the stage to denounce racism.
Lee said, “Today, I call on all of us, with privilege and power to answer God’s call to confront racism and white supremacy head-on.” He was followed by Bro, who announced the Heather Heyer Foundation, “a nonprofit organization that will provide scholarships to help more people join Heather’s fight against hatred.”
Suicide prevention was also a major theme throughout the night. Jared Leto talked about the late Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington. And later in the show Logic, featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid, performed the song “1-800-273-8255,” which is also the number to the suicide prevention hotline.
Vangaurd award winner Pink put on an amazing performance as she sang a compilation of her greatest hits. Then during her acceptance speech she shared a story about her 6-year-old daughter, Willow. Pink said her daughter had been wrestling with self-image issues because other children think she looks too masculine.
Citing herself as an example, Pink said, “I said to her, do you see me growing my hair? She said, ‘no Mama.’ I said do you see me changing my body? ‘No, Mama.’ Do you see me changing the way I present myself to the world? ‘No, Mama.’ Do you see me selling out arenas all over the world? ‘Yes, Mama.’ That’s right. So, baby, girl, we don’t change; we take the gravel and the shell and we make a pearl. We help other people to change so that they can see more kinds of beauty.”
Checkout some of the crazy shade Taylor Swift throws in her new video: