From Madonna to Nirvana to Beyoncé, we picked our favorite MTV VMA performances.
"Article published in Slant Magazine. Author: Sal Cinquemani."
This year marked the 40th anniversary of the first MTV Video Music Awards, a milestone that’s somewhat blunted by the realization that this isn’t your mother’s VMAs. The network handed over the reins to viewers beginning in 2006, letting them pick the winners in all of the main categories. And in recent years, the VMAs have moved even further away from the “video” designation of its name, doling out moonmen for Song of the Year and Song of the Summer.
One thing that hasn’t changed about the VMAs, however, is the opportunity for show-stopping performances, something MTV acknowledged this year with a new Most Iconic Performance category. The winner in that race, Katy Perry, was also bestowed with the semi-annual Video Vanguard award. From Perry flying through the air like a, uh, firework to Madonna rolling around in a wedding dress at the inaugural VMAs in 1984, we’ve picked 20 of our favorite performances.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on August 23, 2013.
20. Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Give It Away” (1992)
As host Dana Carvey said following the band’s head-banging, orgiastic performance at the VMAs in 1992, “Boy, things are really heating up down there…I’ve never seen the Chili Peppers in cuter outfits.”
19. Eminem, “Slim Shady” (2000)
This performance, from back when Eminem was still scrappy and blond, was a simple, effective translation of the rapper’s crass but astute social critique.
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18. Madonna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliott, “Like a Virgin/Hollywood/Work It” (2003)
Putting a twist on her iconic performance of “Like a Virgin” at the very first VMA ceremony, Madonna played the groom to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera’s not-so-blushing brides for this gender-bending performance that, according to one Christian group, led millions of impressionable youth down the greased pole to hell. All in a day’s work.
17. Beyoncé, “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” (2009)
Beyoncé transposed her “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” music video—which won Best Choreography, Best Editing, and Video of the Year—to the nth degree in this show-stopping performance from 2009.
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16. Britney Spears, “I’m a Slave 4 U” (2001)
Long before the albino Burmese python learned how to open doors, this one turned in one of the greatest VMA performances of all time, riding atop a bikini-clad 19-year-old Britney Spears’s glittery, sun-kissed shoulders.
15. Janet Jackson, “Black Cat” (1990)
The fact that Janet Jackson wasn’t singing live doesn’t render her performance of “Black Cat” at the 1990 VMAs any less thrilling. The sheer spectacle of it all—rock pyrotechnics, bombastic guitar solos, prowling choreography—was matched with good old-fashioned pop charisma. And lots of hard-earned sweat.
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14. Lizzo, “Truth Hurts/Good As Hell” (2019)
Backed by a troupe of full-figured dancers and a giant, inflatable bubble butt, Lizzo brought her message of inclusivity and self-love to the VMA stage in 2019. “I want to take this opportunity right now to just feel good as hell,” she declared, making impossible standards of beauty fade away for at least one galvanizing moment.
13. Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, “Livin’ on a Prayer/Wanted Dead or Alive” (1989)
In an era when hair bands and over-the-top stage performances ruled the VMAs, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora turned in a restrained acoustic performance that’s often credited as the launching point for MTV’s successful Unplugged series.
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12. Missy Elliott, “Medley” (2019)
With a mix of elaborate set designs, outlandish costumes, and live digital effects (including dancers teleported into a giant alien spaceship), hip-hop icon Missy Elliott brought her innovative, just plain batshit video aesthetic to life at the 2019 VMAs for a career-spanning medley that included her hits “Get Ur Freak On,” “Work It,” and “Lose Control.”
11. Lady Gaga, “Paparazzi” (2009)
Lady Gaga’s opulent, bloody shock-pop performance of this hit from her debut album, The Fame, was, perhaps, the moment we realized the singer wasn’t content with simply being another cookie-cutter pop star.
10. Kanye West, “Runaway” (2010)
Kanye West premiered “Runaway,” from his magnum opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, with a minimalist yet mesmerizing performance at the VMAs, accompanied by three ballerinas, Pusha T, and, of course, his ego in top form.
9. Rihanna, “Stay/Diamonds/Love on the Brain” (2016)
Simplicity hasn’t usually been the word at the VMAs, but Rihanna’s stripped-down medley of her hits “Stay,” “Diamonds,” and “Love on the Brain” put a lens on the singer’s often overlooked skills as a vocalist. And whatever her performance lacked in technical precision was more than compensated for with swagger, style, and commanding stage presence.
8. Beastie Boys, “Sabotage” (1994)
The Beastie Boys were the merry pranksters of the ball in 1994, with the late Adam Yauch interrupting R.E.M.’s acceptance speech and Ad-Rock flipping the audience the bird. But for a bunch of punks, they were never tighter as a band than they were during their performance of “Sabotage.”
7. Katy Perry, “Medley” (2024)
For her Video Vanguard performance, Katy Perry one-upped Missy Elliott’s spacey 2019 medley by literally dancing on air. The 10-minute mini-set saw the singer reinventing her hits with a mashup of “California Gurls” and Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better with You,” an unexpectedly technofied “Teenage Dream,” a rocked-out mix of “I Kissed a Girl,” and a stripped-down rendition of “Firework.”
6. Madonna, “Like a Virgin” (1984)
Feminists angered by Madonna’s choice of a belt buckle during her first performance at the VMAs in 1984 seemed to miss the fact that her groom was a mannequin and that she chose instead to consummate her vows with her wedding veil. By the time she’d descended her giant wedding cake, hit the floor, and showed her knickers to the world, there was no confusion about what the M stood for in the giant MTV logo towering above her.
5. Kendrick Lamar, “DNA/Humble” (2017)
To say Kendrick Lamar lit up the stage at the 2017 VMAs would be a gross understatement. The only thing more hypnotic than the laser light show of the first half of the rapper’s jaw-dropping performance is the pyro-acrobatics of the second.
4. Nirvana, “Lithium” (1992)
Nirvana only performed once at the VMAs, but it marked the official amp-trashing, Axl Rose-taunting end of MTV’s glam-rock era with both humor and subversion.
3. Hole, “Violet” (1995)
Before she infamously threw the contents of her makeup bag at Madonna during a post-show interview, Courtney Love took to the stage at the 1995 VMAs to numbly dedicate Hole’s exhilarating performance of “Violet” to the late “Kurt…and Kristen…and River…and Joe, and Rob, and today Joni Abbott…”
2. Beyoncé, “Ring the Alarm” (2006)
By the mid aughts, the VMAs became a glut of over-produced, over-hyped live performances, but Beyoncé’s 2006 appearance lived up to all the hype and literally rose above the rest. Her epic, much-ballyhooed medleys at the 2013 and 2016 VMAs don’t hold a candle to what she does in just four short minutes here. Sometimes less is more, even for the Queen B.
1. Madonna, “Vogue” (1990)
She first introduced voguing to MTV audiences a year earlier with her stellar performance of “Express Yourself,” but with “Vogue,” the Queen of Pop turned the 1990 VMAs into a glorified drag ball. Hell, in the spirit of all things artifice, she didn’t even bother to try to pretend she wasn’t lip-synching to a pre-recorded track.
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