Beyonc slays at MTV VMAs, Drake honours Rihanna

Beyoncowned the MTV Video Music Awards by winning video of the year and giving a 16-minute performance featuring her recent hits from Lemonade, working various stages with strong, layered vocals, skilled dance moves and even an outfit change all as the audience watched in awe and cheered her on.

Beyoncwon the top prize for Formation, besting Adele,KanyeWest, JustinBieberand Drake.

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"First of all I'd like to thank my beautiful daughter and my incredible husband for all of their support," said Beyonc, who walked the carpet with Blue Ivy by her side. "I dedicate this award to the people of New Orleans."

Queen B kicked of her strong set with Pray You Catch Me as blue lights beamed onstage. She was wearing white, but later stripped down to a black leotard with full sleeves as she sang Hold Up and Sorry. She grew angry and twerked while performing Don't Hurt Yourself and ended with the anthemic Formation.

"If y'all came to slay, sing along with me," she said.

The audience at Madison Square Garden watched intensely Sunday, at times recording the performance with their phones.

It was reminiscent of the 2014 VMAs, when Beyoncalso performed for 16 minutes and accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award. This year it is being awarded to Rihanna, who split up her performances throughout the night, singing hits such as Work, We Found Love and Love on the Brain.

But the biggest moment for Rihanna came when Drake in a tuxedo presented the award to his former girlfriend. He said he met Rihanna in 2005 on the set of her first music video for Pon De Replay.

"She's someone I've been in love with her since I was 22 years old," Drake said as Rihanna blushed and the audience cheered loudly. "She's one of my best friends in the world. All of my adult life I've looked up to her even though she's younger than me."

Rihanna, 28, thanked her family, friends and hometown of Saint Michael, Barbados for helping her succeed in her 11-year-career.

"All I can think of is my country, they're gonna be so proud, this is the first Vanguard to land anywhere near my country," she said. "My success started as my dream, but now my success is not my own. It's my family, my fans, my country ... it's women, it's black women."

Spears lip-syncs performance

Beyonc'stop-notch performance starkly contrasted with that of Britney Spears, who returned to the VMA stage after 10 years. Not only did she lip sync, in typical fashion, but she did so badly. Spears performed her hit Make Me... and danced slickly, but she didn't actually sing a word of the song live. She was joined by rapper G-Eazy and she lip synched the hook to his hit song, Me, Myself and I.

Beyoncwon best female video for Hold Up, presented to her by four of the U.S. gold medal women's gymnasts, excluding Gabby Douglas, who is hospitalized for a mouth infection.

"Thank you to my fans. I love you," Beyoncsaid. "Have a beautiful night."

Kanye rant

In typical and true Kanye West fashion, the rapper ranted onstage, touching on subjects from music to his beef with Taylor Swift to violence in his hometown Chicago before he debuted his music video for Fade. He talked about his Famous video which features what appear to be naked images of West, Swift, Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump and more. He even pointed to former girlfriend Amber Rose, who was in the audience and is also in the video.

"It was an expression of our now, our fame right now, us on the inside of the TV, you know, the audacity to put Anna Wintour right next to Donald Trump," he said.

Drake wins for 'Hotline Bling'

Drake won the first award for the night best hip hop video for Hotline Bling. Puff Daddy, who presented the award, said Drake was stuck in traffic. Calvin Harris won best male video beating West's Famous for This is What You Came For, which featured Rihanna and was co-written with former girlfriend Swift. Harris accepted the award in a video message.

David Bowie who died from cancer earlier this year received four nominations for Lazarus and won best art direction. The music video, which shows him looking frail in bed with bandaged eyes, was released just days before the icon's Jan. 10 death.

Fifth Harmony and Ty Dollar $ign won best collaboration video for Work from Home. The girl group also won song of the summer for All In My Head (Flex). The pop band DNCE, led by Joe Jonas, won best new artist.

Beyonc, was the top nominee with 11, arrived angel-winged and green-feathered with daughter Blue Ivy in tow along with Sybrina Fulton, Lezley McSpadden and Gwen Carr, the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, among others. They appeared in videos for Beyonc's Lemonade visual album and also make up the Mothers of the Movement, women of colour who lost children to violence.

Jimmy Fallon introduced the top nominees and dressed as Ryan Lochte, with platinum blonde hair. As Lochte, who is dealing with trouble after filing a false robbery report over an incident during the Rio Olympics, Fallon lied onstage about writing Justin Bieber's Sorry and directing the videos nominated for video of the year.

Adele was behind Beyoncwith eight nominations, but the British singer did not attend the show.Adele'sHello,a stylish, moodyvideo directed by Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan, rounds out the list.

The VMAs as it happened

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