2019 MTV Video Music Awards: Missy Elliott Reigns Supreme and Other Highlights

Alci Rengifo

It was a night of flash, activism, and homages at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, which for the first time were hosted in New Jersey. There were still one or two gaffs, and the host might have been misplaced, but there was absolutely no doubt about one thing: Missy Elliott still reigns supreme. The music icon was given a long overdue Video Vanguard Award preceded by the night’s greatest performance, a showstopper combining much of the feverish creativity that helped define Elliott as one of the greatest music innovators of the last two decades.

But before Elliott took the stage the night belonged to that current reigning pop diva Taylor Swift, who opened the show with a candy-colored performance of “You Need to Calm Down,” a rhythmic call for tolerance. It began with Swift singing in front of artificial, hallucinatory pink valleys with rainbows and yellow beach chairs. There was little subtly in the digital pop ups on screen announcing “Equality Act.” This was followed by a tender performance of “Lover” that inspired swaying arms all around. If Swift opened the show with great gusto it was not the case for host Sebastian Maniscalco. The stand-up comedian tried to throw around some humor poking at millennials, including digs at scooter-riding and safe spaces. All is fair in satire, but there just seemed to be no point to the rib-nudging within the context of the show. But Maniscalco was luckily not a prominent part of the evening. At times one could wonder how this show can’t just host itself via performances and presenters. 

And the VMAs have nearly always been about the performances. From Madonna kissing Britney Spears to Miley Cyrus’s infamous 2013 dirty duet with Robin Thicke, it’s the actual moments of music that stand out. Speaking of Miley Cyrus, she was another of the 2019 ceremony’s attention grabbers, returning to give a first performance following a divorce from Liam Hemsworth. Broadcast in black and white, backed by violins, Cyrus crooned an emotive “Slide Away” which displayed her continuing maturity, even as it was overshadowed by rumor mills. Too bad most attention will no doubt go to her new tattoo, also premiered at the VMAs, decked with lyrics from The Pixies’ “The Thing” and believed to have been inspired by Liam. But other moments onstage stood out on their own as well. Lizzo, full of burning soul and attitude performed “Truth Hurts” and “Good As Hell” with a giant, inflatable, twerking posterior, Lil Nas X turned the room into a “Tron”-like cathedral of futuristic neon lights for “Panini” and H.E.R. seemed to walk out of a magazine cover for a blistering “Anti” which climaxed with the singer on guitar. In particular Lizzo and H.E.R.’s performances were also a vibrant celebration of fresh takes on femininity, celebrating the female form in body in voice. Some of the simpler numbers of the night belonged to the Jonas Brothers, who played “Sucker” inside New Jersey’s Stone Pony Club and Camila Cabello’s duet of “Señorita” with Shawn Mendes, which ended with some nose-nuzzling out of high school. 

The awards themselves felt like a sharing of the wealth, as they say. Billie Eilish, absent from the proceedings but sending a video message, won Best New Artist, Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus took Song of the Year for the “Old Town Road (Remix),” Ariana Grande, also a no show, took Artist of the Year, while Cabello and Mendes can cuddle together with their Best Collaboration Moonperson for “Señorita.” Cardi B, all swag for the night, took the Best Hip-Hop award for “Money.” The Jonas Brothers, technically a rock band (?), took Best Pop for “Sucker.” The international spirit of music was celebrated with a Best Latin Moonperson for the Spaniard Rosalía and Colombian J Balvin for “Con Altura.” Rosalía would later perform “A Ningun Hombre” and “Yo x Ti, Tu x Mi” with Puerto Rico’s Ozuna, surrounded by digital roses. While presenting the award French Montana and Alison Brie got explicitly political, with Montana saying, “As an immigrant I feel like we are the people that make this country, and I feel like I want to be the voice.” Brie added, “What’s happening to immigrants in this country is unconstitutional and frankly disgusting.” 

But what truly mattered were two names, Taylor Swift and Missy Elliott. After a video where major names like Timbaland and Justin Timberlake discussed Elliott’s influence on their careers, the titan herself hit the stage with an overwhelming, brilliant spectacle of a performance. Decked in Afrofuturistic wear, Elliott tore into a medley of “The Rain,” “Hot Boyz,” “Get Ur Freak On,” “Work It,” “Pass That Dutch” and “Lose Control.” The stage became an astounding assortment of dancers, Dali-like trees which then turned into a space-like background while Missy and her crew proved some legends never, ever miss or lose a beat. To make the moment even more striking, the camera panned over one particular dancer in yellow moving with startling precision. It was none other than a grown Alyson Stoner, introduced to the world as a little girl years ago in the original “Work It” music video. But it was always Elliott, changing costumes with eye-popping speed, from her famous inflated sci-fi gear to a scarecrow, who gripped your attention, showing the kiddies how it’s done. Cardi B had the honor of presenting the legend her Vanguard award. “I have worked diligently for over two decades, and I never thought that I would be standing here receiving this award,” said Elliott. After thanking God, family and colleagues, Elliott left the stage and no one could possibly top what she had graced the hall with this evening. 

Soon enough Swifties the world over cheered as Taylor Swift would take home Video of the Year and Video for Good honors. Surrounded by star drag queens, Swift thanked voters for not only choosing her video, but in the process voicing their support for equality. Swift eloquently noted, “In this video several points were made. So you voting for this video means you want a world where we’re all treated equally under the law, regardless of who we love, regardless of how we identify.” Her most open political statement emphasized how the end of the “You Need to Calm Down” video features a petition for the Equality Act, noting that 500,000 signatures have been collected, which is “five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White House.” The pop royal checked an imaginary watch onstage, in a blatant call out to the Trump White House. Yet social media would obsess over something else, namely when presenter John Travolta seemed to accidentally hand over the award to RuPaul’s Drag Race star Jade Jolie. Did the “Saturday Night Fever” icon confuse Jolie for Swift? It’s a question which now joins the annals of pop culture mystery. 

Another musical empress closed the show as well when Queen Latifah took the stage accompanied by Redman, Fetty Wap, Naughty By Nature and Wyclef Jean to scorch through some covers of immortal jams like “O.P.P.,” “Funky Child” and “No Woman, No Cry.” Latifah had the fluidity of a master with “U.N.I.T.Y.” 

So ends another edition of an MTV standard that finds itself seeking validity in a rapidly changing world. Music, if not the industry itself, have changed a great deal since the award show’s golden days. But Missy Elliott and even Swift proved that great music never gets old, and refined talent with something to say never grows out of style.

The 2019 MTV Video Music Awards was hosted Aug. 26 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and aired at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.