2016 MTV Video Music Awards: The WINNERS
“Lemonade” Takes Home Eight Moonmen in Total;
BEYONCÉ Recreates Groundbreaking Visual Album with Surprise Performance
Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award Winner Rihanna
Electrifies Madison Square Garden with Career-Spanning Four-Act Performance
NEW YORK, NY – August 28, 2016 – BEYONCÉ’s groundbreaking visual album “Lemonade” won eight Moonmen, including “Video of the Year” for “Formation,” at the 2016 “MTV Video Music Awards,” which aired live tonight from New York’s famed Madison Square Garden. The global megastar surprised the audience with a jaw-dropping “Lemonade” medley that recreated the stunning imagery of the visual album. Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award-winner Rihanna dazzled with a career-spanning four-act performance – including an electrifying opening dance medley and a trio of stirring ballads to close – before accepting the VMAs highest honor with a heartfelt tribute by Drake.
Kanye West made a special appearance to deliver a meditation on fame before introducing the steamy and surreal video for “Fade,” starring actress and GOOD Music recording artist Teyana Taylor and her fiancée, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Iman Shumpert. Future tore through a blistering performance of his 2015 hit “F**k Up Some Commas,” after being introduced by legendary Olympian Michael Phelps, who revealed he’d been listening to Future in the meme-launching photo of him in Rio. Britney Spears made a triumphant return to the VMA stage with a soaring performance of her G-Eazy collaboration “Make Me…”
The following is a complete list of winners and performances:
VIDEO OF THE YEAR
BEYONCÉ – “Formation”
Director: Melina Matsoukas
MICHAEL JACKSON VIDEO VANGUARD AWARD
Rihanna
BEST FEMALE VIDEO
BEYONCÉ – “Hold Up”
Director: Jonas Åkerlund, Beyoncé Knowles Carter
BEST MALE VIDEO
Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna – “This Is What You Came For”
Director: Emil Nava
BEST COLLABORATION
Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Work From Home”
Director: Director X
BEST HIP HOP VIDEO
Drake – “Hotline Bling”
Director: Director X
BEST POP VIDEO
BEYONCÉ – “Formation”
Director: Melina Matsoukas
BEST ROCK VIDEO
twenty one pilots – “Heathens”
Director: Andrew Donoho
BEST ELECTRONIC VIDEO
Calvin Harris & Disciples – “How Deep Is Your Love”
Director: Emil Nava
BREAKTHROUGH LONG-FORM VIDEO
BEYONCÉ – Lemonade
BEST NEW ARTIST
Presented by Taco Bell®
DNCE
SONG OF SUMMER
Presented by Verizon
Fifth Harmony featuring Fetty Wap – “All In My Head (Flex)”
BEST ART DIRECTION
David Bowie – “Blackstar”
Production Designer: Jan Houllevigue
BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
BEYONCÉ – “Formation”
Choreographer: Chris Grant, JaQuel Knight, Dana Foglia
BEST DIRECTION
BEYONCÉ – “Formation”
Director: Melina Matsoukas
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
BEYONCÉ – “Formation”
Cinematographer: Malik Sayeed
BEST EDITING
BEYONCÉ – “Formation”
Editor: Jeff Selis
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Coldplay – “Up&Up”
VFX Editor: Vania Heymann
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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