2007 MTV Video Music Awards

Overview

On August 7, 2007, the nominees were announced live on TRL with a special performance by Kanye West.

The week before the ceremony, the network aired VMA Week on TRL, along with other programming around the VMAs, including performances from top artists.

The VMAs aired live that evening at 9:00 p.m. ET on MTV. MTV originally announced that the show would never be re-aired in its entirety, but program listings eventually showed that that was not the case. Perhaps as a concession that TV viewing audiences for the VMAs were decreasing year over year, the 2007 VMAs were produced on a smaller budget and in front of a smaller crowd. Unlike in past years where the show was shown on MTV in 16:9 HDTV letterbox format, this year the ceremony was aired in 4:3 on the main channel. However, it was still produced in high definition, and was scheduled to air in full on MHD (the current MTV), Viacom's high definition channel, on September 22. At the last moment, a 'best of' 90 minute clip show was substituted due to the various issues with the ceremony.

The setting at the Palms was criticized for the small stage. Only four performances took place on the main stage, which consisted of a small layered stage that led off to a number of "island" stages that served as guests' tables. The tables then led to a smaller stage in the back, so that the performances could go a full 360°.

Awards

Winners are in bold text

Video of the Year

Rihanna (featuring Jay-Z) – "Umbrella"

Male Artist of the Year

Justin Timberlake

Female Artist of the Year

Fergie

Best Group

Fall Out Boy

Best New Artist

Gym Class Heroes

Quadruple Threat of the Year

Justin Timberlake

Most Earthshattering Collaboration

Beyoncé and Shakira – "Beautiful Liar"

Monster Single of the Year

Rihanna (featuring Jay-Z) – "Umbrella"

Best Director

Justin Timberlake – "What Goes Around... Comes Around" (Director: Samuel Bayer)

Best Choreography in a Video

Justin Timberlake (featuring T.I.) – "Let Me Talk to You/My Love" (Choreographer: Marty Kudelka)

Best Editing in a Video

Gnarls Barkley – "Smiley Faces" (Editor: Ken Mowe)

MTV2 On The Rise Contest

Flowers for Dorian won the MTV2 On The Rise contest. The prize for winning was getting flown to New York City to film 5 live videos in front of a green screen. The 5 videos were on Comcast's On Demand and one of the videos premiered at the VMAs. Flowers for Dorian's video for the song Love Remains premiered at the VMAs.

Performances

Unlike previous editions of the MTV Video Music Awards, 2007 brought, besides the main show venue, different suites, each with a host band performing and inviting special guests to perform. There were few Main Show performances, which happened at the same place where the awards were being televised. Mark Ronson performed at the Main Show with special guests.

Pre-show

Main Show

Small Mark Ronson Band Performances at the Main Show

Timbaland & Timberlake Fantasy Suite show

Fall Out Boy Fantasy Suite show

Kanye West Fantasy Suite show

Foo Fighters Fantasy Suite show

Appearances

Britney Spears' performance

Britney Spears opened the 2007 VMAs with a performance of her new single, "Gimme More". The performance had been highly hyped and anticipated by MTV, various other media outlets, by music critics and many millions of fans as Spears' comeback performance, as this was Spears' first broadcast performance since The Onyx Hotel Tour in 2004 in support of her fourth album In the Zone. She performed in small venues throughout 2007 for The M+M's Tour. After the growing media frenzy, obsession, scrutiny, attention and speculation over her wild antics in the past four years, the performance was widely anticipated.

Spears mimed to her song while wearing a revealing sequined outfit. Her male dancers were dressed in black suits with white dress shirts and the female dancers all wore black latex leggings. The performance was met with derision and disappointment by fans and critics alike. A media critic noted that Spears seemed confused and disoriented on stage and appeared to have forgotten the lyrics and dance moves to her performance. Despite the performance, the song became one of the biggest hits of Spears' career along with "...Baby One More Time" (1999), "Oops!...I Did It Again" (2000) and "Toxic" (2004). The performance increased the media frenzy surrounding Spears. In the months following the performance, Spears would go through a very public meltdown.

Although previously reported, illusionist Criss Angel did not play any part in the performance. Britney Spears fan Chris Crocker released a video entitled "Leave Britney Alone!" on YouTube shortly after the event criticizing those who disregarded her performance and asking viewers to treat Spears with some respect. The video would become a hit on the internet.

Kid Rock/Tommy Lee altercation

Kid Rock and Tommy Lee were involved in an altercation at the Video Music Awards during the come-back performance of Alicia Keys. A source reported that Tommy Lee was sitting with magician Criss Angel when the two went to visit Diddy, who was sitting close to Kid Rock. Shortly after the two went over to see Diddy, "all hell broke loose", that source told Access Hollywood. It is reported that Kid Rock sucker punched Tommy Lee in his back. The two, both ex-husbands of Pamela Anderson were broken up, and both were escorted from the resort. Angel was removed a short time later. The cause of the fight is unknown.

TMZ.com reported that the Las Vegas Police questioned Kid Rock, but no arrests were made.

An eyewitness reported to TMZ that "Tommy got it pretty bad." The incident was confirmed by Palms Hotel and Casino public relations representative Larry Fink. MTV Host Sway Calloway said "Tommy Lee was sitting by P-Diddy and Kid Rock just got off stage and from what I saw he walked up to Lee and just decked him."

On-air reactions

Non-music entertainment

Caitlin Upton, Miss South Carolina Teen USA 2007 – famous for her incoherent response to why she thought 1/5 of Americans can't locate the US on a world map, which received millions of views on the internet on websites such as YouTube and third-runner up from Miss Teen USA – did a parody of her response when she was presenting.

Shia LaBeouf revealed the name of the fourth Indiana Jones film: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was confirmed by the official site.

Lineup changes

Amy Winehouse's record label canceled her performance for the show following Lily Allen's withdrawal from the event due to issues obtaining a visa. The two were rumored to perform a duet.

The French electronic group Justice was going to perform at the show with Mark Ronson during one of his VMA spots with an additional special guest. The group had to drop out due to their very, very late arrival in Las Vegas stemming from having to fly in from Europe.

Madonna was rumored to perform with Justin Timberlake according to various Canadian newspapers, but her publicist denied any involvement with the event.