Dear Gossips,
If you’ve watched Missy Elliott’s performance from last night’s MTV VMAs more than once, that is correct. Here’s me sounding like a bitter old aunt, quoting Kathleen who, by contrast (in her mind), is forever young: these kids don’t deserve.
She was actually saying that about Queen Latifah who closed the show as part of the New Jersey medley. But it still applies to Dr Melissa “Missy” Elliott who showed us how she “raised all these babies”, why music and music visuals would not be the same without her.
Missy won Video of the Year for “Work It” at the 2003 VMAs. She was letting people know how much catching up they still needed to do and doing MTV a favour, both then and last night, in reestablishing its relevance. What we saw yesterday was a connection of past to what’s coming, Missy’s seeds blooming, a look back at their origins, a look ahead at what will dominate the VMAs as we approach a new decade. And through it all, Missy will never age. Her work will never age.
But how about that production? Those sets?! So many artists have tried to use animation and whatever hologram sh-t during live events and it’s so often felt clunky? The way Missy used them is exactly how it should be done. The part where the dancers flew into the spaceship? I elevated from reclined to standing without bending my body, from the heels up. And the screens behind her as “Pass That Dutch” transitioned to “Lose Control”, low backlit scaffold revealing hundreds of dancers watching like it was Thunderdome, they’re going to design curricula around this in TV school and teach it for years, MY GOD.
And the costumes.
And the choreo.
And honouring the dancers.
And Alyson Stoner!
1. Yes, Missy really brought Alyson Stoner back.
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) August 27, 2019
2. This reaction was literally all of us 😂😂#VMAs pic.twitter.com/RlyxIHiQK4
Missy did. Does. Will keep doing.
More VMAs coverage is coming through the morning. But everything comes back to this.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey