Ladie's Night at the VMAs

The 2009 Video Music Awards brought its fair share of memorable and shocking moments to the stage at Radio City Music Hall.

The award show began with Madonna making her way to the central stage for the special Michael Jackson tribute, a time that Madonna spoke from her heart about what the "King of Pop" meant to her and as she said "an amazing talent that we led slip through the cracks."

During her speech, Madonna talked about how when she went on a few "dates" with the late King of Pop and that she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt that she had "abandoned" him after hearing of his sudden passing.

Madonna closed by mentioning her two son's who are nine and four years old fascination with Michael. "There's is a lot of crotch grabbing and moon walking going on in our house."

Following Madonna's speech, a dance tribute to Michael began with several dancers donning various Michael Jackson themed apparel performing routines to some of Jackson's classic songs including "Bad", "Smooth Criminal" and "Thriller."

What brought the tribute to a close, a crowd-rocking performance of "Scream" where Michael's sister Janet performed live with Michael's audio and the video playing overhead.

Returning for his second year as host was Russell Brand, the highly popular UK stand-up was brought back after his hosting stint during last year's VMAs.

Just like last year, Brand was given an open mic, to discuss such topics as the rumors that the Lady Gaga was a man or a woman or the controversial comments he made about the Jonas Brothers last year, or the promiscuity of rapper Lil' Wayne.

Unfortunately, as good as he is in film, he is not that funny as a stand-up, especially in last night's monologue. Hey MTV, if you want someone controversial for your show, than why would you ban Andrew Dice Clay so many years ago, they are the same style of comedian.

But Brand's lackluster monologue regardless, the show's shocking moment was surprisingly during the first award presentation for Best Female Video.

Country songbird Taylor Swift pulled off the big win for her video, "You Belong With Me," Swift defeated a field that included VMA frontrunners Beyonce and newcomer Lady Gaga.

While Swift was giving her speech, fellow VMA nominee, rapper Kanye West made his way to the stage and interrupted Swift.

"Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'll let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time," West said. "One of the best videos of all time!"

MTV acted fast and immediately through Kanye out of Radio City Music Hall, following his rant.

Now on a personal note, I am a fan of Kanye, he records some outstanding songs and puts out some amazing records, but why does he act like a complete tool during these award shows, whether its the VMAs or the Grammys.

Kanye's actions resulted in him getting booed for every time his video "Love Lockdown" was introduced in the four categories he was nominated for, instead the crowd chanted, "Taylor, Taylor."

Swift, at first upset over West's Rant, did not frazzle her as she turned in a great performance of her award winning song, on aboard a subway train that was traveling from the 42nd Street Subway station to Radio City Music Hall.

West has recently apologized on his blog to Swift, her fans and to Swift's mother.

Of course with the VMAs, there are high caliber performances by some of the top acts in the business.

Artists that mostly I am not a real fan of, like Lady Gaga was operatic performance was so odd and unreal to watch. If anyone knows what that performance was about, would you let me know.

I got to say though, the "what the...." look on Diddy, after the performance was priceless.

The outfits, that Gaga wore during the show, three different outfits to be exact, were so strange, I guess this women is meant to be the new Madonna, but could somebody tell me what the deal was with her outfits last night.

Personally, I don't know whose 15 minutes of fame are going to end first, Gaga's or "Transformers" star Megan Fox.

Beyonce performance was solid, performing her nominated song, "Single Ladies," especially near the end of her performance where a group of 30 female dancers were routine in the final dance sequence of the video. Is it just me or is she not the modern day Tina Turner?

As a fan of rock n' roll, I was happy to see at least Green Day who rocked the house with their performance of "East Jesus Nowhere."

Lead Singer Billie Joe Armstrong, was cool to run out into the audience and start a wave which spread Radio City, but he did make an almost huge mistake, by bringing the people who consisted the mosh pit on stage for the conclusion.

An act that at first, was cool as Billie Joe crowd surfed on top of the mosh pit, but for security it was a challenge to get Billie Joe out of the crowd and the stage to clear for the show to continue.

In quite, the dynamic performance of the night, Pink performed her current #1 single, "Sober." What made the performance amazing was the addition of a trapeze and how Pink performed her song while dangling off the trapeze hanging over 30 feet in the air. Serena Williams, whose is currently facing the backlash over her profanity filled tirade at the US Open, introduced the performance, however she seemed like she wasn't over the issue as she quipped, "She (Pink) won't have to worry about stepping over any lines."

The most hysterical moment of the night, at there were very few, was Jack Black's prayer to Satan, dressed as the character he voices in the upcoming video game, "Brutal Legend."

For the awards, the notable VMA regulars took home top honors.

Lady Gaga, who in my view, is the "flavor of the month", won for Best New Artist, Gaga beat a field of artists like Kid Cudi, Drake or Asher Roth, artists who are most likely to continue with their career once the world gets over Gaga.

While Swift took home the Best Female Award, T.I. won the Best Male Video award for his video "Live Your Life." T.I. was not present to accept the award due to his recent incarceration.

The big award of the night, was Video of the Year, an award that was won by Beyonce for "Single Ladies," but in quite the unique gesture Beyonce asked Swift back to the stage so she can have her moment. As Swift made her way to the stage, the crowd gave Swift a resounding round of applause as Swift finished her acceptance speech.

"I thought that I couldn't love Beyonce more and then tonight happened," said Swift following the show.

The night came to a close with the premiere of Michael Jackson's documentary "This Is It," a film that depicted Michael Jackson's preparations for his final concert tour.

Also, the grand finale was a rocking performance of "Empire State of Mind," by Jay-Z and the absolutely gorgeous Alicia Keys. The song, is Jay-Z's ode to his hometown New York City, and even cooler one of the fans in the mosh pit got a big time souvenir, the Yankee cap that Jay wore as the performance began.

All in the all, the show was good, I just wish MTV would improve the production of their award shows and bring in a host that doesn't promote shock value and what do you bet Kanye won't be asked back anytime soon.

And another thing, since when does the VMAs have a house band, when has the VMAs become a late night talk show. The artists that were featured with the house band, I'm sure were well credited, yeah 3OH!3, Pitbull and All American Rejects were big this year but since we can't fit you into performing at the show, we'll have you perform 30 second versions of your hit songs with a lame house band.

Anyway, moving on, Here is a look at the remaining winners from last night's VMAs:

Best Pop Video: Britney Spears -- "Womanizer"

Best Rock Video: Green Day -- "21 Guns"

Best Hip-Hop Video: Eminem -- "We Made You"

Best Direction in a Video: Green Day -- "21 Guns" (Director: Marc Webb)

Best Choreography in a Video: Beyoncé -- "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" (Choreographers: Frank Gatson and JaQuel Knight)

Best Special Effects in a Video: Lady Gaga -- "Paparazzi" (Special Effects: Chimney Pot)

Best Art Direction in a Video: Lady Gaga -- "Paparazzi" (Art Director: Jason Hamilton)

Best Editing in a Video: Beyoncé -- "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" (Editor: Jarrett Fijal)

Best Cinematography in a Video: Green Day -- "21 Guns" (Director of Photography: Jonathan Sela)

Best Video (That Should Have Won a Moonman): Beastie Boys -- "Sabotage"