As promised, Janet Jackson opened the show and it was great to see her perform a medley of her hits from the early days to her latest single "Make Me." I'm still mesmerized every time I see her dance.
Next up, Jennifer Lopez and her single "Louboutins." Her entrance was something even fellow Puerto Rican and famed boxer Miguel Cotto would have been envious of. Her dance moves were on point from start to finish if you can ignore the fact that she fell when jumping from one set to another. Overall, her performance was pretty good... it's hard to believe she's a 40-year-old mother of infants and still looking so great. Check it out:
Introduced by Yankee Alex Rodriquez, Alicia Keys and Jay-Z performed their hit "Empire State of Mind," which including a cover of Sinatra's "New York, New York." The whole stage had a sort of 20s era vibe to it from the pianos across the stage to the white tux jacket that Jay wore. One question... why couldn't they have picked ANY other Yankee to introduce the song?
Okay time for Rihanna's comeback... Let's first point out that she has literally been all over the media since her February attack so it's not such a comeback. After such great reviews of so many of her previous performance in the past few weeks, I had huge expectations for her performance tonight and it left me feeling like we got short changed. I'm a huge fan of Rihanna on the radio but she sounded flat and the red laser beams seemed like she was recycling concepts from her tour with Kanye West. For someone that has some of the best PR and a reputation to be one of the hardest workers in the business, it's always a little disappointing to see when she doesn't live up to expectation. Check the performance here and draw your own conclusions:
Alicia Keys wasn't done after her performance with Jay-Z... later in the show, she performed Try "Sleeping with a Broken Heart." I had a love-hate relationship with this performance which isn't typical for me with Alicia Keys - she usually blows me away but some of the dancing was distracting and I feel like she just over-sang on some of the verses... take a listen and judge for yourself.
Lady Gaga continues to live up to her reputation of bizarre stage-sets and costumes but if there's one thing I think everyone can agree with when it comes to Gaga, it's that she brings 100% to the stage every single time. Performing her latest single "Bad Romance," Lady Gaga continued to impress.
Eminem and 50 Cent teamed up on stage again to perform at this year's show. While the magic of yester-year might not be there yet, Em was flawless through his entire performance.
Timbaland, SoShy and Nelly Furtado teamed up to perform their his "The Morning After" from Timb's ShockValue II album. I don't mind Timbaland singing on tracks but he definitely shouldn't be allowed to do it live. Nelly Furtado's presence was much appreciated once she arrived on stage... she's one of the most underrated beauties in the industry.
The Black Eyed Peas were the most disappointing performance of the night. After an introduction that recapped the incredible records they've put up over the last several years as a group, they sounded flat and were under-whelming. With so many hits in the 5 years and a reputation for being dynamic stage performers, the entire group seemed off.
The big winners for the night were Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson, neither of which was a huge surprise. The biggest shock of the entire night was the fact that Gloriana beat out Lady Gaga for "Breakout Artist of the Year." You know you've stunned the crowd when you get on stage and say "How many people in the audience are asking yourself 'who?' right now?"
Check out the full list of winners here
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