Rihanna performing in a blizzard with Jay-Z for a special Rockfeller Plaza New Year’s Eve taping with Carson Daly Saturday (top photo), Hugh Jackman having a snowball fight with his kids Sunday (middle photo), Mark Ronson spinning at Webster Hall Friday night (bottom photo), Ed Westwick tearing it up at Armani Exchange Thursday, David Archuleta rocking Christmas songs on the Today Show Monday, Gym Class Heroes‘ Travis McCoy performing his first solo show with Matisyahu at Music Hall of Williamsburg during the 2009 Festival of Light Saturday, and Janet Jackson hanging out at Alicia Keys‘private party Thursday.
It wasn’t the best performance of the night (that spot is reserved Lady GaGa‘s glass-shattering rendition of “Bad Romance” and “Speechless,”) but it will certainly be the most talked about!
Adam Lambert hit the stage at the American Music Awards Sunday night for an energetic, borderline sex-show version of latest single “For Your Entertainment” that included shoving a male dancer’s face into his crotch, dragging a female dancer around the stage by her shoe, and making out with a male keyboard player.
“Female performers have been doing this for years — pushing the envelope about sexuality — and the minute a man does it, everybody freaks out,” Lambert later said, perhaps referencing Madonna and Britney Spears‘ liplock back in 2003.
“We’re in 2009 — it’s time to take risks, be a little more brave, time to open people’s eyes and if it offends them, then maybe I’m not for them,” he adds. “My goal was not to piss people off, it was to promote freedom of expression and artistic freedom.”
We totally agree with Lambert about the double-standard, but he should also keep in mind that those performances are generally reserved for MTV! (ABC seemed to take note of this, editing certain thrusts out of their West coast broadcast.)
With the exception of GaGa and Lamby, most of the night’s performances were a snooze – Daughtry strummed through the motions during “Life After You,” Janet Jackson‘s lipsync-ed her way through her opening montage, and Jay-Z and Alicia Keys performed “Empire State of Mind” for the 548823th time.
Shakira was decent – performing new single “Give It Up To Me” with the help of a step team, and Whitney Houston‘s first live TV performance in five years (“I Didn’t Know My Own Strength”) was fine…
Scooping up notable awards were Jay-Z for Best Rap/Hip-Hop Male (“Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t,” the emcee laughed, during his acceptance speech), Michael Jackson (two awards, accepted by brother Jermaine), and Taylor Swift‘s three trophies via London satellite, including Artist of the Year.
The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards began with a bang: a very poignant bang that included a monologue by Madonna about the legacy of Michael Jackson.
“Michael Jackson was a human being, but he was a king,” Madonna said, during her closing lines. “Long live the king.”
Those sentiments were echoed throughout the night, and specifically a few minutes later, when sister Janet Jackson emerged with her own dance crew for a high-energy performance of “Scream” that synced with the music video of MJ dancing behind her.
The night also ended with Jackson in mind, as MTV left us with a two-minute preview for his “This is It” concert film, composed of footage from the tour that never happened.
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