2009 MTV Video Music Awards

Performances

House band performances

Rapper Wale and go-go band UCB served as the house band for the show, performing right before, during, and right after commercial breaks. Throughout the show they also had various special guests and performed the following songs:

• Wale and UCB – "Breakdown"
• Wale and UCB – "Chillin"
• 3OH!3, Wale and UCB – "Don't Trust Me"
• Wale and UCB – "Viva la Vida"
• Pitbull, Wale and UCB – "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)"
• Solange, Wale and UCB – "Use Somebody"
• The All-American Rejects, Wale and UCB – "Gives You Hell"
• Kid Cudi, Wale and UCB – "Remembering DJ AM"
• Wale and UCB – "Pretty Girls"

Winners and nominees

Winners are in bold text.

Best Breakout New York City Artist Award

Best Breakout Artist Awards

Eight local MTV VMA Best Breakout Artist Awards were awarded. The table below lists the number of bands considered in each city, the three finalist nominees selected by MTV for each VMA, and the winner in bold. The winners were featured on MTV on local cable during the live VMAs and received featured coverage on MTV and MTV2 (or MTV Tr3́s in the case of the LA contest).

Artists with multiple wins and nominations

Appearances

Pre-show

• Buzz Aldrin – presented Breakthrough Video
• Sway Calloway – presented Best Video (That Should Have Won a Moonman)

Main show

• Madonna – opened the show with a speech about Michael Jackson
• Shakira and Taylor Lautner – presented Best Female Video
• Jack Black and Leighton Meester – presented Best Rock Video
• Miranda Cosgrove and Justin Bieber – introduced Taylor Swift
• Pete Wentz and Gabe Saporta – introduced Lady Gaga
• Nelly Furtado and Kristin Cavallari – presented Best Pop Video
• Megan Fox and Adam Brody – introduced Green Day
• Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner – introduced an exclusive New Moon sneak peek preview
• Chace Crawford and Ne-Yo – introduced Beyoncé
• Diddy and Jamie-Lynn Sigler – presented Best Male Video
• Gerard Butler and Alexa Chung – introduced Muse
• Jennifer Lopez – presented Best Hip-Hop Video
• Eminem and Tracy Morgan – presented Best New Artist
• Serena Williams – introduced Pink
• Jimmy Fallon and Andy Samberg – presented Video of the Year

Kanye West–Taylor Swift incident

As Taylor Swift was giving her Best Female Video acceptance speech for "You Belong with Me", Kanye West went on stage, took the microphone from her, and said: "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!", referring to the music video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". As the live audience booed, West shrugged his shoulders, handed the microphone back to Swift, and walked off stage as he flipped off the audience.

West was subsequently removed from the show.

Various celebrities and industry figures, as well as prominent political figures including then United States President Barack Obama, former President Jimmy Carter, and future President Donald Trump condemned West for his verbal outburst at Swift. West apologized on his blog and during an appearance on The Jay Leno Show.

Emil Wilbekin, managing editor of Essence magazine, argued that West went too far with his actions, compared to the past: "I think that it was not Kanye's place to speak for Beyoncé or to ruin Taylor Swift's moment... It's OK for Kanye to rattle off about himself, but I think he crossed the line when he decided to speak for other people." Powers was cynical about the onstage embrace Beyoncé and Swift shared, calling it "staged" and stating that it added "another layer of meaning to an already complicated moment. Now this controversy was about women sticking up for each other, too."

In 2013, Rolling Stone named the incident the wildest moment in VMA history. The outburst resulted in a meme consisting of images of West being superimposed onto other images with text in the style of his interruption as a snowclone ("X is one of the greatest Y of all time", or variants thereon, in some cases preceded by "I'm really happy for you" and/or "I'mma let you finish")." West later referenced the incident in his 2016 single "Famous", controversially claiming that he made Swift famous through it.

References

References

1. [https://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/09/15/mtvs-2009-vmas-pull-nine-million-viewers-best-ratings-since-04/ MTV's 2009 VMAS Pull Nine Million Viewers, Best ratings since '04] {{Webarchive. link. (September 19, 2009 , ''[[Rolling Stone]]''. 2009.)
2. [https://archive.today/20120703021348/http://www.hollyscoop.com/tv/kanye-west/2009-vmas-ratings-up-17_1904.aspx 2009 VMAs Ratings Up 17%], Hollyscoop.com. 2009.
3. "2009 MTV Video Music Award winners". MTV.
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5. "MTV Local Music Contests". OurStage.
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7. "MTV VMA Best Breakout Atlanta Artist".
8. "MTV VMA Best Breakout Chicago Artist".
9. "MTV VMA Best Breakout Boston Artist".
10. "MTV VMA Best Breakout Philly Artist".
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12. "MTV Tr3s Best Breakout LA Artist".
13. Respers, Lisa. (September 14, 2009). "Anger over West's disruption at MTV awards". CNN.
14. Kreps, Daniel. (September 13, 2009). "Kanye West Storms the VMAs Stage During Taylor Swift's Speech".
15. link. (December 13, 2010 , [[MTV]]. 2009.)
16. [http://perezhilton.com/2009-09-14-celebs-tweet-support-for-taylor Celebs Tweet Support For Taylor] {{Webarchive. link. (September 22, 2009 , [[Perez Hilton]]. 2009.)
17. Daly, Sean. (September 18, 2009). "Taylor Swift calls up the MJ Morning Show... and then all hell breaks loose". Tampa Bay.
18. MacAskill, Ewen. (September 15, 2009). "Obama calls Kanye West a 'jackass' over MTV outburst". The Guardian.
19. (September 15, 2009). "Jimmy Carter weighs in on Kanye West's VMA stunt". CNN.
20. (December 13, 2016). "Donald Trump Once Called for a Boycott of Kanye West in 2009".
21. (September 15, 2009). "Kanye West expresses Swift regret on blog and 'The Jay Leno Show'". The [[Los Angeles Times]].
22. Powers, Ann. (September 14, 2009). "Beyonce and Taylor Swift: Sisterhood is powerful, especially when male-directed". Los Angeles Times.
23. Hyman, Dan. (August 16, 2014). "The 24 Wildest Moments in VMA History".
24. Anderson, Kyle. (September 16, 2009). "Kanye West's VMA Interruption Gives Birth To Internet Photo Meme". MTV.
25. (August 26, 2019). "How the Taylor Swift-Kanye West VMAs scandal became a perfect American morality tale". [[Vox (website).