The MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) kicked off a live show August 30, 2002 from Radio City Music Hall in New York. The three hour show was hosted by Saturday Night Live (SNL) funnyman Jimmy Fallon. The comic cutie opened the show by impersonating some of today's hottest acts and giving their songs a "Weird Al" sort of twist with his own funny lyrics - much the way he does on SNL's Weekend Update. Jimmy's line-up included spoofs of Eminem's Without Me, Nelly's Hot in Herre, Dave Matthew's Everyday, Avril Lavigne's Complicated and Enrique Iglesias' Hero to name a few. The guy is one seriously funny dude!
Highlight performances of the night included Shakira's belly dancing rock-out to Objection (Tango.) Shakira wildly danced barefoot as percussionists pounded their drums on the intro to Objection (Tango,) then she rocked out and ended her performance with a dive into the crowd. A shirtless Eminem performed his latest hit, Cleaning Out My Closet. Was anyone else distracted by this boy's washboard abs?
P!nk gave a stellar performance of her latest song Just Like A Pill, which started out ballad-like with P!nk lying down on a couch and turned into a strong, rockin' performance showcasing Pink's amazing vocal ability. That girl can sing! Pink sported a blackish purple 'do and a leather get-up with tribal tattoos down one side of her body. I'm pretty sure these ones are fake though - unless she's spent the entire week at a tattoo parlor!
The performance many people were dying to see was *NSYNC'er Justin Timberlake's solo debut. Timberlake emerged from a giant boom-box ghetto blaster for his song Like I Love You from his upcoming solo CD, Justified. The song began with an acoustic intro, plenty of electronic-style beats and Justin Timberlake's soulful voice. Did anyone else get a Michael Jackson vibe from this performance? The moves, the tipping of the hat and the longer-than-usual sections with Justin singing so high you'd think his leather pants were too tight! His voice sounded good and his dance moves were great but I think the song had too many effects going on.
Artists who walked away with a moon man included Eminem, Pink, No Doubt, Avril Lavigne, The White Stripes, Cold Play and Kylie Minogue. Did you tune in for the VMAs? If so, what'd ya think? Good, bad or just ugly?
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- 2002 MTV Movie Awards
- Pink - Concert Review
- Special - 2001 MTV Video Awards
- Shakira - Laundry Service - CD Review
- Get Your Music Facts from the Source
