MTV VMAs: 27 of the Awards Show’s Wildest Moments of All Time

MTV VMAs: 27 of the Awards Show’s Wildest Moments of All Time

The MTV Video Music Awards are never without over-the-top performances and buzzworthy moments, and this year’s show is sure to be no different.

The awards show debuted in 1984 with one of the most memorable moments of all time: Madonna’s performance of “Like a Virgin” (see below). Since then, artists from Kanye West to Miley Cyrus have created their own watercooler moments that have given the VMAs a reputation for being a tad bit crazier than your typical awards show.

This year, the VMAs will air for the first time on CBS (it’ll also be simulcast on MTV and stream on Paramount+). What new celebrity antics might we see come Sept. 7? Only time will tell, but in the meantime, take a look below at 27 of the most memorable moments over the past three decades (interestingly, many artists pop up more than once here; we’re looking at you, Miley and Britney).

The singer, who was nominated for best new artist for her “Borderline” video, hit the stage in a wedding dress and garters, along with a belt featuring a buckle that read “BOY TOY,” to perform “Like a Virgin.” She began her performance atop a giant three-tiered wedding cake before making her way down the floor, where she ended the song writhing on the floor. “I think we all know she had a few drinks, because she had to get up the nerve to crawl around like she did,” Les Garland, former executive vp programming at MTV, told Billboard in 2014. “She stole the show.”

Paul Reubens, best known for his Pee-Wee Herman character, was arrested in 1991 in an adult movie theater in Florida for indecent exposure. Many thought his career was over, especially given he was best known for a character who was currently the star of a kids show. After the news broke, CBS pulled the remaining reruns of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse from its schedule, and Toys “R” Us removed all Pee-wee toys from its shelves. Despite public support from celebrity pals including Cyndi Lauper and Joan Rivers, Reubens laid low until that year’s VMAs, where he was met with thunderous applause when he opened the show with a joke: “Heard any good jokes lately?” 

Prince took the stage to perform “Gett Off” in pants that were designed to seemingly show off his butt cheeks. However, years later, Stacia Lang, who served as Prince’s costume designer from 1990-93, told CNN that it was more of an illusion than viewers might have thought. Lang said that she used a thin, net-like fabric known as marquisette to make it appear like he was exposing his derrière. “There was a beautiful, white, pure, really heavy French lace that we took right away to the dyers and had that dyed bright citron yellow,” she said. “And also (the dyer) had to dye up several fabrics that would create the illusion that his rear end was showing.”

Then-newlyweds Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were facing skepticism about the authenticity of their marriage. They opened the show with their first public appearance as a couple. “I’m very happy to be here,” Jackson said. “And just think, nobody thought this would last,” he added, nodding his head toward Presley, before taking off his sunglasses and kissing her onstage.

“He knew I didn’t love that,” Presley told Oprah Winfrey in 2010, the year after Jackson died. “I would be there, uncomfortably. And his hand was blue after we got off that stage. … I had squeezed it so hard. … But as his wife, I needed to do some things like that.”

Before Kanye West cut Taylor Swift’s speech off in 2009, Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch was the first to do it. In 1994, Yauch, dressed as his alter-ego Nathaniel Hornblower (whose outfit resembled a leprechaun’s), stormed the stage as R.E.M. accepted their award for best director for “Everybody Hurts.” Declaring, “This is an outrage! This is a farce!” Yauch argued that Spike Jonze should have won the award for directing Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” music video.

The band reunited with David Lee Roth for the first time in over a decade, to present the award for best male video. However, Roth kept interrupting the group and going on tangents.

It was their first time together onstage since their 1984 tour wrapped. Van Halen had recently split with singer Sammy Hagar, and Roth had been brought back to record some new songs for a compilation album, according to Rolling Stone, leading many fans to think that an announcement of a reunion tour was imminent.

“We have to make an announcement,” Roth said, in his first interruption. “We have to address a subject here. This is the first time we’ve actually stood onstage together in over a decade.”

He then interrupted again, cutting off bassist Michael Anthony: “Have you noticed how things have changed a lot since the last time we were up here?” he asked the crowd. “It used to be, ‘I want my MTV!’ And now it’s like, ‘Gimme your fucking MTV or I’ll blow your head off, man.’” Guitarist Eddie Van Halen then took Roth and gently but firmly pushed him aside, though Roth began thrusting his hips and making other gestures off to the side. According to Rolling Stone, Roth stood behind Beck as he accepted the award for “Where It’s At” and continued to make distracting movements.

“I felt his onstage antics were embarrassing and disrespectful to Beck,” Eddie later said. “Backstage, he spit in my face. We get shuffled off to the first mob press conference and everyone was yelling and screaming questions and Dave wasn’t answering any of them. I just kind of walked up to him and say, ‘Look, here’s what is happening. Two songs for Best Of Volume One. Warner Bros. would like us to do two videos and that is it. If you think we’re going on tour in the summer, forget it. We’re not going to go out there and take your money. If we ever do a tour with Roth in the future we’ll have to write and record a new album. Also, I’m getting a new hip on Dec. 6, so that’s going to throw a wrench in the works.’”

At the 1997 VMAs, Fiona Apple decided to skip all of the “thank yous” during her acceptance speech for best new artist and instead used her time at the podium to deliver a poignant message. “I didn’t prepare a speech and I’m sorry, but I’m glad that I didn’t because I’m not gonna do this like everybody else does it,” the singer said. “What I wanna say is … this world is bullshit. You shouldn’t model your life about what you think we think is cool and what we’re wearing and what we’re saying and everything. Go with yourself.”

While presenting the award for best hip-hop video in 1999, Diana Ross got up-close and a little too personal with Lil’ Kim, who came to the show wearing a purple jumpsuit that revealed her left breast (which she covered with a pasty). Instead of greeting the rapper with a customary hug or handshake, Ross reached over and gave her co-presenter’s exposed breast a jiggle. 

A miscommunication at the 2000 VMAs led to Michael Jackson delivering a heartfelt acceptance speech for an award that didn’t exist. That year, MTV planned to allocate some show time to celebrate the King of Pop’s birthday. But when Britney Spears introduced Jackson onstage as someone she considers to be the “artist of the millennium,” Jackson mistakenly thought he was receiving an official award for that title.

In 2000, Rage Against the Machine bassist Tim Commerford climbed atop a 15-foot-tall set piece onstage in protest after Limp Bizkit won the moonman for best rock video. 

Commerford refused to come down and was subsequently arrested and spent the night in jail.

“My reasons were my personal reasons,” Commerford later said of why he did it. “Totally personal politics.”

The singer performed “I’m a Slave 4 U” while holding an Albino python draped over her shoulders in 2001. In 2016, she told E! News of the iconic moment: “It’s insane! Why did I do that?” Asked if she’s ever do it again, she replied: “Hell, no! It’s so dumb. No! Never!”

However, in 2023, she posted about the performance on Instagram that it was one of her favorites of all time and noted she wrote about it in her memoir, The Woman in Me: “One of my favorite performances was with an albino python … I still remember how scared I felt when I was handed this snake and took the stage !!!”

The King of Pop took the stage with ‘N Sync to show off his signature moves in 2001 at the end of their performance of “Pop.”

Macy Gray wanted everyone to know exactly when her second album, The Id, would be released. In a next-level act of self-promotion, she wore a gown to the 2001 VMAs bearing the following message in all caps on the front: “My new album drops Sept. 18, 2001.” While onstage, she told the audience: “Music and videos are all good, but I want everyone to take a moment and just focus on my dress.” She showed off the front and then turned around to reveal another message, in all caps — “Buy it!” — on her derriére.

Designer Betsey Johnson applauded the move (“she’s her best advertisement”), while other critics called it a “tacky” and “ugly dress” but acknowledged that she did get the headlines she was looking for with the stunt. 

Andy Dick took the stage as “Daphne Aguilera,” the “cousin” of Christina Aguilera, for a skit.

He took the stage to perform a song in a hot pink outfit with several backup dancers. Toward the end, he became annoyed and “slapped” a backup dancer that got in his way. He then went out into the audience, walked over the top of the seats and “attacked” Xtina herself, who saw the humor in the whole bit.

He originated the character on his MTV series The Andy Dick Show.

In 2001, Moby called Eminem ”a misogynist, a homophobe, a racist and an anti-Semite.” In response, Eminem called Moby a “36-year-old bald-headed f*g” in his hit song “Without Me.” At the 2002 VMAs, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog was making jokes with a game Moby, when the puppet (Robert Smigel) referenced the feud and then tried to talk to Eminem, who brusquely shut him down. When Eminem  later took the stage to accept an award, presented by Christina Aguilera, he was booed after he called Moby a “little” girl and said he would “hit a man with glasses.” For his part, Triumph has been quoted as saying of the incident: ”I only wish Eminem could relax and enjoy all he has: his unique talent and his smooth white hair, which brings to mind a beagle’s nutsack. He should lighten up … I mean, my mom was a bitch too, but I don’t go writing songs about it.”

Before Madonna made headlines for laying one on Drake during her surprise guest set at the 2015 Coachella festival, the singer turned heads when she kissed both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera during their joint performance of “Like a Virgin” and “Hollywood” at the 2003 awards show. Spears and Aguilera wore wedding gowns and descended down from a giant multi-tiered cake set piece, in a nod to Madonna’s 1984 performance, and did some writhing of their own, while the latter showed up in a black jacket and top hat. After some dance moves, Madonna then locked lips with first Spears and then Aguilera.

Fat Joe took the stage at the 2005 VMAs to present an award, but not before saying: “I’d like tell the people at home I feel so safe tonight with all this police protection, courtesy of G-Unit,” the hip-hop group formed by 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo. Later in the show, after G-Unit performed, 50 called out Fat Joe in a bleep-filled moment: “Fat Joe is pussy, man. Pussy boy. Fuck boy.” 

In his 2022 memoir, Fat Joe wrote about the incident: “Halfway through the show, I went out on the stage to give Missy Elliott an award. What the audience at home didn’t see was that during the commercial break beforehand, 50 Cent got out of his seat and started walking the house. He went up to the audience in the cheap seats and started waving to me. It was like he was daring me to get off the stage and physically confront him. Then he went down to the floor and started slapping fives with Jay-Z and Diddy.” Then 50 Cent came out onstage just before Fat Joe was scheduled to perform. “I was saying to myself, OK, we’re about to fight. We’re about to get it on right here at the VMAs,” Joe wrote. “When the show came back on — this is live TV, mind you — he went back to his seat. The G-Unit started yelling at me while I’m reading off the teleprompter. The Terror Squad, offstage in the wings, started barking back. That’s when I dropped my jab: ‘I feel safe with all the police protection courtesy of G-Unit.’” Fat Joe also said the incident cost him a $20 million endorsement deal for a new shoe with the Jordan brand as well as other deals.

For his part, 50 Cent said last year that he regrets spending time feuding with Fat Joe. He attributed their beef due to their similar personalities. “When we’re at odds, we are at odds, and we did that for a long time,” he said. “Because of his loyalty to Irv Gotti and Ja Rule, Joe wasn’t happy with things that were making me happy. It was easy for me to say, ‘F— you,’ because we weren’t on the same page.” He added: “Now he’s like my friend, and I don’t care that he has relationships with people I don’t. He’s always had those relationships.” They have even hit the stage together in recent years (see below).

The pop singer hit the stage again in 2007 to perform “Gimme More” but drew concern from the public and critics who remarked that she seemed out of it for the performance. She later revealed in her memoir, The Woman in Me, that she’d had an awkward run-in with ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake ahead of her performance. “It had been a while since I’d seen him,” she wrote. “Everything was going great in his world. He was at the top of his game in every way, and he had a lot of swagger. I was having a panic attack. I hadn’t rehearsed enough. I hated the way I looked. I knew it was going to be bad.”

She continued: “There was a problem with my costume and with my hair extensions. I hadn’t slept the night before. I was dizzy. It was less than a year since I’d had my second baby in two years but everyone was acting like my not having six-pack abs was offensive, I couldn’t believe I was going to have to go out onstage feeling the way I felt. I went out there and did the best I could at that moment in time, which — yes, granted — was far from my best at other times. I could see myself on video throughout the auditorium while I performed; it was like looking at myself in a fun-house mirror.”

A video of her rehearsal, which went much better than the live performance, was released later.

Perhaps the most buzzed-about moment of all, Kanye West rushed the stage in the middle of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech soon after the pop star was awarded a trophy for best female video at the 2009 VMAs. Claiming that her music video for “You Belong With Me” wasn’t worthy of the prize, the rapper told her, “Yo, Taylor — I’m really happy for you. Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.” Beyoncé later brought Swift back to the stage to properly present her speech when she won the night’s biggest honor, video of the year. “I remember being 17-years-old up for my first MTV award with Destiny’s Child, and it was one of the most exciting moments in my life,” she told the audience. “So, I’d like for Taylor to come out and have her moment.”

In 2015, Swift presented the Video Vanguard Award to West, where she jokingly referred to the incident when addressing the night’s other winners: “I’m really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time.” 

Lady Gaga shocked viewers — and angered animal rights groups — when she donned a dress made of raw meat at the 2010 Video Music Awards. She said the dress was meant as a statement against the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding people who identified as LGBTQ serving in the armed forces.

“I was speaking with my artistic friends about if we wanted to make any statements while we were at the MTV Video Music Awards, and we did want to make a statement,” Gaga told Vogue in 2021. “Because at the time, they were trying to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ but we decided to do the meat dress because I thought to myself, if you were willing to die for your country, what does it matter how you identify?”

She added: “It smelled like meat. It was thrilling to wear. There’s a corset under [the dress], but the corset was sewn to the meat. So this is actually a garment. They didn’t just drape meat over me and cross their fingers.”

The dress was preserved as a form of jerky and is currently on display at the Haus of Gaga museum inside the Park MGM casino in Las Vegas.

A year later, Lady Gaga made headlines again at the VMAs. Though she was “absent” from the 2011 awards show, her alter-ego, Jo Calderone, made an appearance. The pop star — donning a black blazer, sideburns and a black wig — stayed in character for the entire ceremony, even while performing her single “You and I.”

Beyoncé performed her single “Love on Top” at the 2011 awards show dressed in a modest blazer and black slacks. At the end of her set, she unbuttoned her jacket and exposed her growing baby bump, publicly announcing her pregnancy and garnering rousing applause from the audience (and husband Jay-Z, who was standing in front). She would give birth to their first daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, on Jan. 7, 2012.

The “Wrecking Ball” singer joined Robin Thicke onstage for a racy performance of her song “We Can’t Stop” and his hit “Blurred Lines,” during which Cyrus twerked in front of Thicke and made suggestive gestures with a foam finger.

Following the show, the FCC was flooded with complaints from outraged viewers who deemed the performance “crude” and “shameful.”

Thicke later said: “We knew what we were getting ourselves into. We’re entertainers, and the VMAs is the perfect place for a little shock and awe. Yeah, we kind of knew when we were in rehearsal. … We were like, ‘OK, if you touch me with your foam finger all over my crotch, obviously a few people are going to have something to say about this.’ But that was the whole point. I mean, the whole point was to excite and provoke and entertain.”

For her part, Cyrus said she wanted to make history with the performance. “I don’t pay attention to the negative,” Cyrus said. “Madonna‘s done it, Britney‘s done it. Every VMA performance, anyone that performs, that’s what you’re looking for — you’re wanting to make history. Me and Robin, the whole time said, ‘You know we’re about to make history right now.’” Of the people who continued talking about the performance in the days that followed, she said: “They’re overthinking it. You’re thinking about it more than I thought about it when I did it. I didn’t even think about it, ’cause that’s just me.”

When Cyrus won video of the year in 2014 for “Wrecking Ball,” she let a once-homeless man accept the award of her behalf in an effort to raise awareness about youth homelessness. Jesse Helt, then 22, accepted the honor and spoke about his own experience as a teary-eyed Cyrus watched.

“Thank y’all, my name is Jesse and I accept this award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving, lost and scared for their lives right now,” he said. “I know this because I am one of these people. I’ve survived in shelters all over. … Though I may have been invisible to you in the streets, I have a lot of the same dreams that brought many of you here tonight.”

Cyrus bought the suit he wore to the show and paid for his hotel room.

It was later revealed that he had a warrant out for his arrest in his home state of Oregon for “criminal mischief” and “attempted burglary” in 2010. Attending the show violated the terms of his probation. He was sentenced to six months in jail after turning himself in. Two years later, he put the trophy she let him keep up for sale, reportedly to pay for costs associated with his unborn baby.

Kanye West accepted his Video Vanguard honor by first standing onstage for roughly two minutes listening to the applause, without saying anything. Then, in a lengthy and rambling speech, he questioned the meaning of awards shows, criticized MTV for replaying his 2009 VMAs moment with Swift repeatedly to generate bigger ratings and admitted he’d “rolled up a little something” to smoke before coming out onstage. He ended his speech by saying: “I’m confident. I believe in myself. We the millennials, bro. This is a new mentality. We not gonna control our kids with brands. We not going to teach hate to our kids. We’re going to teach our kids that they can be something, that they can believe in themselves. If my grandfather was here right now, he would not let me back down. I don’t know what I finna lose after this. It don’t matter though, because it’s not about me. It’s about ideas, bro, new ideas, people with ideas, people who believe in truth. And yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020, to run for president.” He did run, in fact, and conceded the day after the election, which Joe Biden won. In 2022, he announced that he was running again, in the 2024 election, but his campaign eventually petered out.

The two artists have a history of bickering with one another. This particular dispute started when Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” wasn’t nominated for video of the year in a category that did include other nominees like Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, who also was the VMAs host that year. Minaj tweeted her frustration over the snub: “When the ‘other’ girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination” and “If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year.” For her part, Swift replied: “@NICKIMINAJ I’ve done nothing but love & support you. It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot.”

Cyrus, meanwhile, was asked about Minaj in an interview with The New York Times. “You know what I always say? Not that this is jealousy, but jealousy does the opposite of what you want it to — that’s a yoga mantra,” she replied. “People forget that the choices that they make and how they treat people in life affect you in a really big way. If you do things with an open heart and you come at things with love, you would be heard and I would respect your statement. But I don’t respect your statement because of the anger that came with it. And it’s not anger like, ‘Guys, I’m frustrated about some things that are a bigger issue.’ You made it about you. Not to sound like a bitch, but that’s like, ‘Eh, I didn’t get my VMA.’”

She continued: “What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind. It’s not very polite. I think there’s a way you speak to people with openness and love. You don’t have to start this pop star against pop star war. It became Nicki Minaj and Taylor in a fight, so now the story isn’t even on what you wanted it to be about. Now you’ve just given E! News ‘Catfight! Taylor and Nicki Go at It.’”

Cut to the VMAs just a few days later. Minaj won for best hip-hop video and then turned to Cyrus and said: “Back to this bitch that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press. Miley, what’s good?” Cyrus responded: “Hey, we’re all in this industry. We all do interviews, and we know how they manipulate shit. Nicki, congratu-fucking-lations.”

That year’s host generated more headlines out of the VMAs when she suffered a wardrobe malfunction backstage. She appeared on camera behind a black curtain doing her hosting duties. When someone went to walk by her, the curtain fell and showed off her nude breast. It quickly cut away and Cyrus could be heard saying: “What’s happening? Oh, sorry. My tit’s out?” The Parents Television Council released a statement in response: “Are we surprised that Miley Cyrus exposed herself to millions of viewers, and to more people who will inevitably see the news in the mainstream media? About as surprised as we’ll be if the sun rises in the east tomorrow morning.” The FCC also received some complaints from upset viewers. In 2022, Cyrus suffered yet another wardrobe malfunction while performing on her NBC special Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party.

He may have won over romantics with his speech but not his intended target. Drake presented Rihanna — whom he’d previously dated — with the Video Vanguard Award in 2016, starting out by talking about how they met before either had achieved their current level of fame. He ended his remarks by declaring: “She’s someone I’ve been in love with since I was 22 years old. She’s one of my best friends in the world. All my adult life, I’ve looked up to her even though she’s younger than me. She’s a living, breathing legend in our industry.” (He’d also taken out a billboard to congratulate her on her honor. She posted a photo of it on Instagram with the caption, “When he extra ?–!!!”)

In 2018, she told Vogue that the 2016 VMAs moment made her “uncomfortable.” “The VMAs is such a fan-focused awards show, so having that energy around me, and knowing the people who had received the award in the past, made it feel like a big deal,” she said. “Waiting through that speech was probably the most uncomfortable part. I don’t like too many compliments. I don’t like to be put on blast.” She also said then: “We don’t have a friendship now, but we’re not enemies either. It is what it is.” (She’s been with A$AP Rocky since 2020; they have two kids together and a third on the way.)