VMAs (Video Music Awards)

An MTV Video Music Award (a.k.a. VMA) is an award presented by MTV to honor the best music videos. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category), the annual MTV Video Music Awards ceremony has often been called the "Super Bowl for youth", an acknowledgment of the VMA ceremony's ability to draw millions of youth from teens to young adults every year, with the VMA had becoming a coveted award. The statue given to winners is an astronaut on the moon, one of the earliest representations of MTV.
The annual VMA ceremony occurs before the end of summer and held either in late August or mid-September, and broadcast live on MTV. The first VMA ceremony was held in 1984 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. The ceremonies are normally held in either New York City or Los Angeles. However, the ceremonies have also been hosted in Miami and Las Vegas. The VMAs have increasingly become renowned for the eye-catching performances that take place and the multiple controversies that the ceremony has produced regularly each year. In 1989, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora turned out a stripped down acoustic performance of the Bon Jovi hits "Wanted Dead or Alive and "Livin' on a Prayer", and in the process possibly provided the inspirational spark for MTV Unplugged.

Notable controversies that have occured on the VMAs include:
-1984: Madonna performed her hit "Like A Virgin" dressed as a prostitute bride and wearing a flashy buckle reading ‘Boy Toy’ before writhing around the stage.
-1989:  Andrew Dice Clay's appearance to promote his new movie, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, earned him a "lifetime ban" from the network when he introduced Cher with some of his already-notorious nursery rhymes that contained vulgar language and references.
-1991: A conflict between Poison's Bret Michaels and C.C. DeVille culminated in a fistfight.
-2003:  Madonna portrayed a groom kissing her brides, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, on stage.
-2008:  Host Russell Brand commented on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, begging the audience to vote for him. Brand called President George W. Bush a "retarded cowboy" and claimed Bush "wouldn't be trusted with a pair of scissors in Britain."
-2009: Country singer Taylor Swift won Best Female video for "You Belong with Me." During her acceptance speech, rapper Kanye West unexpectedly showed up on stage. Taking the microphone from Swift, he announced "Yo Tay, I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!". MTV cut away from the stage (showing Beyoncé with an embarrassed look) after West gave the microphone back to Swift and giving the middle finger to the audience as they started booing him off stage, and so Swift did not finish her speech. West was removed for the rest of the show.
-2013:  Miley Cyrus' performance of her song "We Can't Stop" featured the former child star entering the stage through a giant teddy bear wearing a one-piece bodice with a teddy bear styled on it. The singer performed with a group of back-up dancers dressed as giant bears before singer Robin Thicke joined Cyrus on stage to perform his song "Blurred Lines". Cyrus then stripped down to a flesh colored bikini and proceeded to perform her signature twerking dance moves, simulating sex with Thicke and groping his genitals with a giant foam finger.