VMAs’ Wildest Moments Through the Years

Britney Spears, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus and more of the biggest names in music are responsible for the craziest VMAs moments — see the photos

Always an awards show to remember! The MTV Video Music Awards have been making headlines since 1984, and there is not a hint that the ceremony will slow down anytime soon.

Britney Spears, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus and more of the biggest names in the music industry are responsible for the craziest VMAs moments ever. From the Hannah Montana alum’s twerking with Robin Thicke to the Princess of Pop’s kiss with Madonna, celebrities have long used the VMAs stage to incite controversy and keep fans talking for years to come.

Perhaps the most noteworthy VMAs moment of all time came when West ambushed Taylor Swift on stage in 2009 to share his opinion that Beyoncé should have won Best Female Video instead of the “You Belong With Me” singer.

“Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all times!” the rapper declared, referring to her “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” hit. “One of the best videos of all time!”

Swift revealed in August 2019 that she wrote a diary entry about the moment. “Ahh… the things that can change in a week,” she noted in a page published in the deluxe version of her Lover album. “Let’s just say, if you had told me that one of the biggest stars in music was going to jump on stage and announce that he thought I shouldn’t have won on live television, I would’ve said, ‘That stuff doesn’t really happen in real life.’ Well… apparently… it does.”

The “Shake It Off” songstress elaborated on the ramifications in her 2020 documentary, Miss Americana. “For someone who built their whole belief system on getting people to clap for you, the whole crowd booing is a pretty formative experience,” she said. “That was the catalyst for a lot of psychological paths I went down. Not all of them were beneficial.”

As for Cyrus, she divulged during a March 2020 Instagram Live that she had body insecurities after her 2013 performance with Thicke: “I was just so skinny and so pasty and [trolls] kept putting me next to this turkey and I was feeling so bad on myself that I did not wear a bikini for, like, two years and no one thought that would ever make me feel some type of way.”

Scroll down to revisit the wildest moments in VMAs history!