(Photo Source: medium.com)

The VMAs was over-the-top this year

Taylor Swift was the biggest winner of the night at the 2019 Video Music Awards. She took home several awards, including the top honor for Best Video for her song, “You Need to Calm Down.” The video also won the “Video For Good” award, which is reserved for videos that call attention to important social issues.

In fact, the 2019 VMAs were a big win for LGBT issues and artists. “You Need To Calm Down” throws shade at anti-gay activists, and featured actors and dancers from the LGBTQ community. Lil Nas X, who came out as gay this summer, took home the award for Song Of The Year for his Smash Hit, “Old Town Road.”

But the show was not without controversy. Rapper Missy Elliott received a lifetime achievement award that was previously known as the “Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.” But the VMAs unceremoniously dropped Jackson’s name from the award–presumably because of the backlash over the Netflix documentary Finding Neverland, which featured two men who say Jackson molested them as young boys. Some celebrities in attendance objected to dropping Jackson’s name from the award.

“We still don’t know one way or the other [what happened]. Michael Jackson is still Michael Jackson,” rapper Ice-T said on the red carpet.

Other winners in major categories included Ariana Grande (Artist of the Year), Billie Eilish (Best New Artist), Cardi B (Best Hip-Hop, for her song “Money”), and the Jonas Brothers (Best Pop, for their hit “Sucker.”)