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Non-winning Kanye grabs VMA headlines – another award rant

By | Published on Monday 14 September 2009

Well, I suppose when you invite Kanye West to your award ceremony you’re probably hoping for a customary headline-grabbing rant at some point in the proceedings. At last night’s MTV Video Music Awards West’s rant didn’t centre on him being the best artist in the house, though, rather on his frustration that Beyonce hadn’t won Best Female Video, even though she wasn’t nominated in that category, but was for the overall Best Video award.

Obviously Kanye decided to express his frustration as the winner of the Best Female Video award, Taylor Swift, stood up to accept the honour. As Swift started to speak about the challenges country artists face in getting exposure via MTV, West arrived on stage, grabbed the mic and said: “I’m really happy for you. I’m going to let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all-time, one of the best videos of all-time”.

Beyonce, whose video for ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ was among the most nominated, and went on to take three prizes in total, including Best Video, looked on somewhat embarrassed as Kanye ranted about her failure to get the Best Female nod. Others in the audience were openly hostile to West’s stage invasion, subsequently booing when his name was mentioned later in the proceedings. Some Tweeted their disapproval. Other Best Female nominee Pink added to her Twitter feed the comment “Kanye West is the biggest piece of shit on earth, quote me”, and look, we did.

West, meanwhile, used cyberspace to apologise. Before the ceremony was up he’d posted an apology to his blog. Noting again how good he thought Beyonce’s vid was, he added: “I’m sooooo sorry to Taylor Swift and her fans and her mom. I’m in the wrong for going on stage and taking away from her moment!” He added that Beyonce’s video remains one of “the best of the decade”.

In a sort of defence of his actions, he recalled how at the BET Awards in 2007 he tried to give up the award he had won because he thought OutKast were more worthy winners. He blogged: “Everybody wanna boooo me but I’m a fan of real pop culture!!! … I gave my awards to OutKast when they deserved it over me … that’s what it is”.

So there you have it. While Kanye grabbed the headlines at the VMAs, here’s who grabbed awards…

Video Of The Year: Beyonce – Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)

Best Male Video: TI ft Rihanna – Live Your Life
Best Female Artist: Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me

Best Hip-Hop Video: Eminem – We Made You
Best Pop Video: Britney Spears – Womanizer
Best Rock Video: Green Day – 21 Guns

Best New Artist: Lady Gaga – Poker Face
Breakthrough Video: Matt And Kim – Lessons Learned

Best Video (That Should Have Won A Moonman), ie, Classic Vid Award: Beastie Boys – Sabotage

Best Art Direction: Lady Gaga – Paparazzi
Best Choreography: Beyonce – Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
Best Cinematography: Green Day – 21 Guns
Best Direction: Green Day – 21 Guns
Best Editing: Beyonce – Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)
Best Special Effects: Lady Gaga – Paparazzi



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