Lacklustre VMAs still threw punch or two

Published Aug 28, 2014

Share

THE MTV Video Music Awards have come and gone and as usual we witnessed some memorable things.

On one end Blue Ivy, child of Jay Z and Beyoncé, is received a (fake) award (sigh) and Miley Cyrus redeemed herself by clinching the Video of the Year for that Wrecking Ball video that we all saw a million times. It must have been a dead giveaway that she would win considering that there were so many spoofs from celebrities, including Hulk Hogan and Betty White. It became a cult and Cyrus was raking in the praise, hoping that we would forget about her twerking for Robin Thicke on the VMA stage last year.

But that’s enough of the actual awards. It was the shooting of Suge Knight, former chief executive of Death Row Records where the late Tupac Shakur was signed at the time of his death, that made headlines.

Not much is known about Knight’s shooting incident but it is uncannily reminiscent of the shooting that led to Shakur’s death. Knight was shot six times and he claims he does not remember a thing. He was at Chris Brown’s pre-VMA party and a fight broke out. People heard gunshots, and several bullets hit Knight.

But this is not the first time there has been controversy over incidents on the eve of an international awards ceremony. Still on Chris Brown, on the eve of the Grammys in 2009, he and then girlfriend Rihanna had a fight and he beat her up, changing his public image forever. A lot of people shunned him and sympathised with her. Not that it matters, but he has never fully explained what got him so enraged that he physically assaulted her.

Then there was another eve-of-the-Grammys incident in 2012: Whitney Houston died. In what became a very charismatic story – great singer dying before a great music award ceremony– Houston was instantly immortalised, although she had died under drug-related circumstances.

Last year, on the eve of the Grammys, Chris Brown had an accident in an apparent attempt to escape the paparazzi. He was not injured, but the Porsche he was driving was seriously damaged.

While we all look out for who will be winning what on the night of the awards, it is almost always intriguing to see what happens on the night before. Since everyone will be anticipating the big night, there will be a lot of parties happening before and this often means that there are incidents that come to light on the night of the awards. Unfortunate as it may be, celebrities know no limit when it comes to partying.

Related Topics: