From Britney Spears’ kiss with Madonna in 2003 to Lady Gaga’s blood-soaked, ceiling-suspended performance of “Paparazzi” in 2009, MTV’s Video Music Awards have always taken the cake when it comes to over-the-top moments. For last night’s 36th edition, the network relocated the show from Radio City Music Hall to the Prudential Center, which marked the affair’s first time in New Jersey. The new location gave the entire ceremony a sense of purpose, with producers making notable tributes to the city’s unique place in history throughout the night, including a special performance by hometown heroes Jonas Brothers at the world-famous Stone Pony and a reunion for The Sopranos actors Jamie-Lynn Siegler, Drea de Matteo, and Vincent Pastore.
Though the show admittedly got off to a rocky start based on a few unsavory and painfully outdated jokes made by first-time host Sebastian Maniscalco — seriously, a punchline about safe spaces and being triggered in 2019? — things quickly got back on course as things continued. By the end of the three-hour ceremony, MTV had offered up a number of iconic highlights to hold us over until next year. (Actually, we’ll all be talking about Normani’s splits for several years to come). Here’s our rundown of the best queer moments from the 2019 VMAs.
Taylor Swift Kicks Things Off with a Drag Queen Takeover
No matter your thoughts on Taylor Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” video — remember, shade never made anyone less gay — you can’t fault the singer for at least trying to support our local drag queen economy by employing several RuPaul’s Drag Race stars to appear in it. Charged with opening last night’s festivities, Swift chose to recreate the rainbow-tinged oasis of her video on the VMAs stage. The singer also made room in her performance for a few queens from the video, including Trinity The Tuck, A’keria Davenport, Trinity K. Bonet, Tatianna, and Jade Jolie (who John Travolta hilariously mistook for Swift herself), as well as for her close friend and collaborator Todrick Hall, who took a night off from performing in Broadway’s Waitress to join her. Later, when the song won the highly coveted award for Video of the Year, Swift took the time to draw attention to the pro-LGBTQ+ Equality Act, which she memorably dedicated space to at the end of the video.
