[ot-caption title=”The Video Music Awards kicked off this year’s award season (Wikimedia/Flickr).”]

The MTV Video Music Awards mark the start of music award ceremonies after a long summer hiatus. Known for iconic moments like Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift in 2009 and Miley Cyrus’s raunchy performance of “We Can’t Stop” in 2013, the VMA’s are a must see event. If this isn’t enough, the award show’s late August date and all the songs released in the month make for a night filled with debut performances. Taking place Sunday August 30th, the 2015 award show was nothing short of this. Nick Jonas kicked off the red carpet with his base dropping “Levels,” Justin Bieber performed his new soothing pop track “What Do You Mean?,” and Taylor Swift debuted the cinematic music video for “Wildest Dreams,” her latest single off 1989.

With so many highly anticipated performances, it is hard to believe that the VMA’s viewership was down from last year. However, it almost seems irrelevant when considering that the show broke the “US Twitter Record” for most tweets about a non-sports event and had record amounts of streaming from laptops and phones, both of which are arguably more important for future growth.

Miley Cyrus shattered her child star image at the 2013 VMA’s when she twerked on Robin Thicke during her performance of “We Can’t Stop.” Cyrus built her new image entirely off that now iconic performance, and it is not surprising that MTV asked her to host only two years later. Miley’s comedic skits for the 2015 show seemed almost too planned compared to her usually unpredictable performances. While she definitely did some crazy things, nothing was too unexpected.

One of the most surprising performances of the night was Nicki Minaj’s show opening medley of “Trini Dem Girls” and “The Night is Still Young.” It started out very typical for Minaj, maybe even too ordinary, but halfway in, Taylor Swift appeared to join her in a duet. While MTV held back from publicizing the duet prior to the show, it proved the media had overblown Minaj and Swift’s Twitter “fight,” and they were still on good terms. Later, when accepting the Best Hip-Hop video award for “Anaconda,” Minaj shocked the audience by calling out Miley Cyrus for talking badly about her in a recent interview. While it is still unclear if this was a planned stunt, it was definitely one of the most talked about moments of the night.

Another notable performance was Justin Bieber’s comeback performance of his summer hit “Where are U now?” and his new song “What Do You Mean?” After two rough years of constant tabloid coverage about his reckless behavior, it looks like Bieber is finally trying to fix his tarnished record. His performance earned him a standing ovation. Bieber started crying after the performance, which is also speculated to have been planned.

What made the night special was when Taylor Swift presented Kanye West with the Video Vanguard Award. It made West’s horrible misstep at the 2009 VMA’s come full circle… well almost. West first apologized to Swift but then ranted about why he should be able to say what he wants. He finished his speech with, “If you haven’t guessed it yet, I am running for president in 2020,” which generated countless internet memes.

While the show seemed to be a two hour long concert more than an award show, a few awards were still presented during the live telecast. Taylor Swift won the most awards with a total of four for “Bad Blood” and “Blank Space.”  Cyrus closed out the show with her new song “Dooo it” and revealed that her new album Miley Cyrus and her Dead Petz was available for free online, certainly a bold way to finish the show.