MTV VMAs 2022: Winners announced at raucous ceremony of shock cameos and surprise announcements

Good evening and welcome to The Independent’s liveblog for the MTV VMAs 2022.

This year’s ceremony is taking place tonight (Sunday 28 August) in Newark, New Jersey, with not one but three hosts to keep you entertained through the evening: Jack Harlow, Nicki Minaj and LL Cool J.

Organisers have also booked a number of stars for live performances, including Lizzo, K-pop group BLACKPINK, Eminem and Snoop Dogg, and Italian rock band Maneskin.

Harlow and Maneskin are slightly controversial appearances due to the fact that they both dropped out of Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK to make it to the VMAs. I guess money (and primetime TV slots) talk...

Let’s take a look at this year’s nominees, shall we?

OK, who’s gonna wear what at the red carpet? I’ve seen a lot of predictions for “naked” dresses because Megan Fox wore one last year... personally I’m always excited to see what Lizzo rocks up in, plus the Maneskin lot (even if they are in my bad books for pulling out of a UK festival to attend), Rosalia, Bad Bunny (incredible style), and Billie Eilish. Nicki Minaj will probably be sporting at least three outrageous outfits.

Here’s the lifestyle team’s report on that Megan Fox dress from last year

Reading and Leeds bosses were probably quite disgruntled to learn Italian rock band Maneskin and US rapper Jack Harlow were pulling out of the festivals last minute.

Both acts were lured away by the promise of some primetime TV spots at the MTV VMAs 2022, with Harlow both performing and co-hosting with fellow rappers Nicki Minaj and LL Cool J.

“We are saddened to hear that Jack Harlow and Måneskin have decided to perform at an award show the same weekend they were confirmed to play Reading & Leeds,” festival organisers wrote in a statement posted to their Instagram Stories.

“We are working on some exciting replacements to join Arctic Monkeys, Dave, Bring Me The Horizon, The 1975, Halsey, Megan Thee Stallion, D-Block Europe, PinkPantheress, Joy Crookes, Fontaines DC, Bastille, Willow, Wolf Alice, Glass Animals, Hybrid Minds and many others at Reading & Leeds Festivals this August Bank Holiday weekend, watch this space!”

Check out critic Mark Beaumont’s report on the first day of Reading festival here, and his review of Day 2 at Reading festival here.

Remember this Versace look from Taylor Swift in 2019? I adored it (I’m such a Versace fan) – it was colourful, bold and had a perfect nod to classic power dressing.

This weekend’s MTV VMAs will have three hosts; rap stars LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj and Jack Harlow.

The trio will introduce and present Sunday’s (28 August) ceremony at The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey and will appear alongside the evening’s performers, which include Eminem and Snoop Dogg in a first-of-its-kind appearance, as well as Lizzo, Anitta, BLACKPINK, J Balvin, Måneskin and Kane Brown.

You can find a full list of performers here.

Having multiple hosts is nothing new to the VMAs, which were first anchored by Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd in 1984. Other previous hosts include Katy Perry, Arsenio Hall, Jack Black, Russell Brand, Chris Rock and last year, Doja Cat.

LL Cool J is a three-time nominee who won in 1991 for best rap video for “Mama Said Knock You Out,” and was a recipient of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 1997.

Read more about this year’s co-hosts below:

It has been 12 years since Eminem last performed at the VMAs, and 17 years since Snoop Dogg’s last performance at the awards ceremony.

In February, the pair joined forces with Dr Dre, Mary J Blige, and Kendrick Lamar for a star-studded Super Bowl halftime show.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, MTV has said the show will be a “first of its kind” performance of “From the D 2 The LBC” inspired by the world of the Otherside metaverse.

Otherside – an American video game developer based in Boston – describes itself as “a gamified interoperable metaverse currently under development. The game blends mechanics from massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) and web3-enabled virtual worlds.

“Think of it as a metaRPG where the players own the world, your NFTs can become playable characters, and thousands can play together in real time.”

The MTV VMAs will take place at 8pm ET on Sunday, 28 August at New Jersey’s Prudential Center. This means that, in the UK, the ceremony will air at 1am on Monday, 29 August.

Here’s how to tune in... (I’ll be in bed, darlings, handing over to my fabulous colleagues in the US for the main event).

Earlier this month, Madonna reflected on how a wardrobe malfunction early in her career – at the very first MTV Awards in 1984 – that led her manager to say her “career was over”.

The 63-year-old music icon said the moment happened when she performed her hit single “Like A Virgin”.

“I walked down these very steep stairs of a wedding cake, and I got to the bottom, and I started dancing around, and my white stiletto shoes fell off,” Madonna remembered on a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“And I was trying to do like this smooth move like dive for the shoe and make it look like it was choreography and my dressed flipped up, and my butt was showing. Can you imagine?

“Those were the days when you shouldn’t show your butt to have a career,” she quipped. “Now it’s the opposite.”

The 2022 MTV Video Music Awards is expected to be full of iconic fashion.

This year’s red carpet begins at 6:15pm (ET) with a 90-minute MTV VMAs Pre-Show hosted by Nessa, Kevan Kenney, and celebrity correspondent Tate McRae. The red carpet livestream can be watched on MTV’s Youtube channel.

The stars have already begun to arrive on the red carpet. Lizzo, who is nominated for four awards tonight, arrived at the Prudential Center in a couture Jean Paul Gaultier gown. Meanwhile, co-hosts Jack Harlow and LL Cool J wore matching black leather looks.

Meredith Clark has all the best dressed stars from the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards.