VMAs from 1984 until now in pictures: From Madonna’s theatrical performances and Nirvana’s feud, to Lady Gaga’s meat dress and Britney Spears’ snake-Emily Bashforth-Entertainment – Metro

So much has happened over the years, so let’s get into it… (Picture: Getty)

The MTV VMAs are upon us, which means it’s time to take a trip down memory lane.

This year, the VMAs promise to be bigger than ever with performances from the likes of Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, Black Pink and more, while Harry Styles, Adele, Billie Eilish, and Drake battle it out for the big gongs.

But with all the excitement surrounding the upcoming awards, we can forget all the iconic moments we’ve been blessed with over the years, from Lady Gaga’s meat dress and Miley Cyrus’ twerkathon, to Britney Spears’ snake and, well, just about anything involving Beyoncé.

So, let’s take a look back on the VMAs, all the way from the very first ceremony in 1984 until now.

1984

The awards began in style in 1984 (Picture: Getty)

The VMAs began back in 1984 and was hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Cyndi Lauper took home a trophy for best female video with Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and performers included Madonna and David Bowie.

1985

The VMAs were a hit once more in 1995 (Picture: Getty)

The VMAs returned for a star-studded second year in 1985, with Don Henley as the night’s biggest winner, taking home four awards, including the gong for video of the year.

What’s Love Got to Do with It by Tina Turner also won big, with the music icon also presenting an award.

1986

Whitney Houston stunned at her first VMAs (Picture: Getty)

Whitney Houston made several appearances at the VMAs during her career, including the third ceremony in 1986.

How Will I Know took home a prize, a song she also performed, along with Greatest Love of All.

1987

Prince hit the stage with an unforgettable set (Picture: MTV)

The legendary Prince hit the stage in 1987 with a spectacular set at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles.

Other iconic performances came from Cyndi Lauper and Bryan Adams.

1988

Michal Jackson dominated the VMAs in the 80s (Picture: MTV)

In 1988, Australian rock band INXS was both the most-nominated and most-awarded artist at the show.

Elsewhere, the King of Pop performed Bad, streamed live from London while the awards took place in LA.

1989

The queen of pop publicly vogued for the first time (Picture: Getty)

Madonna has become somewhat of a VMAs icon, and who could forget what has been branded by many her ‘best performance ever’ at the 1989 event.

Then 31 years old, the pop queen publicly vogued for the first time as she performed Express Yourself.

1990

Madonna came through with another memorable performance (Picture: WireImage)

Of course, Madonna returned the following year, with 1990 seeing the end of the best stage performance in a video category.

Janet Jackson was awarded the vanguard award for her contributions and influence within music and pop culture and she also performed a controversial live rendition of Black Cat.

1991

Prince tore the roof off yet again (Picture: Getty)

Prince performed once again in 1991, delighting the crowd and viewers at home by joining The New Power Generation to sing Get Off.

Presenters included everyone from Cher to George Michael.

1992

1992 was a messy year for celeb beef (Picture: WireImage)

The 1992 VMAs is remembered for the notable for a feud between Axl Rose and members of Nirvana, as well as Courtney Love, with threats supposedly beginning backstage.

Not done there, however, after Nirvana’s performance of Lithium, drummer Dave Grohl taunted Rose and Kurt Cobain proceeded to mention the spat in interviews.

1993

Cobain returned with his wife and then baby daughter despite the previous year’s feud (Picture: WireImage)

Cobain returned to the awards the following year with his wife, and his daughter Frances Bean Cobain.

Big awards of the night went to names including En Vogue for Free Your Mind and Peter Gabriel for Steam.

1994

Janet Jackson expanded her awards collection in 1994 (Picture: WireImage)

Aerosmith received the most nominations with nine nods in 1994, while R.E.M took home the most with four to their name.

Meanwhile, Janet Jackson added another moon person to her collection for best female video with If.

1995

TLC are taking us way back (Picture: Getty)

Serving you a serious bout of nostalgia, we have TLC collecting their award for best R&B video.

That wasn’t all they won, though, as the girl group secured another three gongs, making them joint biggest winners of the night alongside Weezer.

1996

Huge year for velvet suits (Picture: WireImage)

Oasis, Metallica, Alanis Morissette and Kiss took to the stage to perform at the 1996 event in New York City.

Meanwhile, actress Gwyneth Paltrow introduced the winners of the professional categories, wearing a famous red suit that she recently revived.

1997

Of course, Geri had the Union Jack on (Picture: FilmMagic)

Girl power! 1997 saw the Spice Girls hit the red carpet. They also delivered a fab performance of Say You’ll Be There.

Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Adam Sandler, and Kevin Bacon also handed out awards.

1998

The very definition of girls supporting girls (Picture: WireImage)

Now, who could forget that iconic dress moment between Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston? And can you believe it happened all the way back in 1998?

The music powerhouses presented the award for best male video in the same frock to make light of their alleged feud and laugh off rumours.

1999

Tear it up, Britney! (Picture: Getty)

In the last VMAs of the 90s, Britney Spears saw us out with a bang.

The Toxic hitmaker joined forces with NSYNC to perform both their hits, …Baby One More Time and Tearin’ Up My Heart.

2000

Remember Pink’s pink hair? (Picture: Getty)

It’s the first VMAs of the noughties so, of course, we have to bring back Pink in the most 2000s outfit ever.

Rapper Eminem scored seven noms that night, taking home three.

2001

I’m a Snake 4 U (Picture: WireImage)

When you ask someone to name an iconic VMAs performance, Britney and her snake are probably up there, and we have 2001 to thank for it.

She performed I’m a Slave 4 U with the python draped over her shoulders in a seriously brave move.

2002

What a 2002 outfit from Christina (Picture: Getty)

If Christina Aguilera’s outfit for the 2002 VMAs wasn’t peak noughties fashion, we don’t know what is.

Of course, there’s always drama with the VMAs, and this time it was during the show when Michael Jackson accepted a birthday statue from Britney Spears, which he believed to be an artist of the millennium award due to a misunderstanding.

2003

Who could forget that kiss? (Picture: Getty)

Britney and Madonna are VMAs legends, with Madge’s most talked about moment probably when she joined Brit and Christina for an epic performance, which ended in a smooch.

Offering fans a major throwback, Britney recently recreated the moment with Madonna at her wedding to Sam Asghari.

2004

Beyoncé has become a VMAs icon (Picture: FilmMagic)

They were not married in 2004, but Beyoncé’s now husband Jay Z took home the most awards in 2004.

Performers included OutKast, Nelly, and Kanye West (more on him later).

2005

Girl group royalty right there (Picture: FilmMagic)

Still going strong until their split the following year, Destiny’s Child shone on the red carpet at the 2005 VMAs.

Hurricane Katrina cancelled much of the pre-show activities, but fortunately the show was able to go ahead as planned after the storm passed.

2006

Sigh, those were the days when Rihanna used to sing (Picture: FilmMagic)

Remember when Rihanna used to make music and showed up to awards shows? Those were the days.

In 2006, she presented ringtone of the year with Ne-Yo (yes, that was an actual category), and this year marked the first time viewers were able to vote for all performers’ categories.

2007

Justin Timberlake was a big winner in 2007 (Picture: Getty)

The 2007 VMAs took place in The Palms in Las Vegas.

This marked the smallest VMAs ever held in MTV history, eliminating 13 awards, and renaming many of the remaining awards.

Justin Timberlake won big with the award for male artist of the year.

2008

Paramore are so 2008 (Picture: FilmMagic)

Is there anything more 2008 than Paramore?

This year saw The Pussycat Dolls receive the most nominations (6), followed by Chris Brown and Katy Perry (5).

2009

Anyone else cringe just looking at this picture? (Picture: FilmMagic)

Back to Kanye West and we will never forget that moment he stormed on stage and interrupted Taylor Swift’s speech, claiming that Beyoncé had ‘one of the best videos of all time’.

Being the true champion of girl power that she is, Bey later allowed Taylor to come on stage and finish her acceptance speech after she’d been handed an award.

2010

We imagine her seat didn’t smell too great after the show (Picture: WireImage)

Sorry to haunt your nightmares if you’re a veggie, but 2010 really was the year Lady Gaga wore her famous meat dress (and stank the venue out, no doubt).

However, it was a successful night for the star, as she earned 13 noms and took home a mega eight awards, making her the most-nominated artist in VMA history for a single year.

2011

Blue Ivy, that’s you in there! (Picture: Getty)

The world literally stood still the moment Beyoncé unveiled her baby bump at the 2011 VMAs.

Earning rapturous applause from the screaming crowd, during her epic performance of Love On Top, Queen Bey shared that she was expecting her first child, whom we know now as Blue Ivy.

2012

2012 ’twas the year of 1D (Picture: Getty)

One Direction attended their first VMAs in 2012, bagging three awards just two years after being formed on The X Factor.

The British boy band also performed their single One Thing on a night that surely solidified their success across the bond.

2013

Almost 10 years later, we still don’t know where to look (Picture: FilmMagic)

The 2013 VMAs will go down in history as nothing short of chaotic.

We had Taylor Swift subtly shading ex-boyfriend Harry Styles in her acceptance speech for I Knew You Were Trouble as she said, ‘I’d like to thank the person who inspired this song who knows exactly who he is’, before the camera panned to the smirking 1D star.

Oh, we also had Miley Cyrus twerking on Robin Thicke as they sang Blurred Lines.

2014

Total Justin and Britney vibes from Katy and Riff Raff (Picture: Getty)

Channelling Justin and Britney, Katy Perry walked the red carpet with rapper Riff Raff in a whole denim lewk.

Beyoncé received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, following a 16-minute medley of her self-titled fifth studio album.

2015

This is probably not a pic Kim nor Taylor wants to hang in their home (Picture: WireImage)

‘Twas all rosy again between Taylor and Kanye in 2015 and, while the friendship didn’t last long, she did cosy up to his wife Kim Kardashian while the rapper was on stage.

Taylor took home an impressive four awards that night as the success of her 1989 raged.

2016

Kimye looked as fashionable as ever on the carpet (Picture: Getty)

While Kimye (now divorced) stormed the red (white) carpet, 2016 was the year of Adele after her smash single Hello and album 25.

Beyoncé won nine awards that night too, making her the artist with the most wins in the history of the award show.

2017

Lorde gave an energetic performance (Picture: WireImage)

Lorde took to the stage in 2017 for an epic performance of Homemade Dynamite.

This was also the year of Fifth Harmony’s savage ‘throwing Camila Cabello off the stage’ moment and Pink’s Michael Jackson video vanguard medley.

2018

Ariana and Pete were all loved up in 2018 (Picture: Getty)

After bursting onto the music scene, Cardi B won best new artist in 2018.

Ariana Grande, who was then loved up with Pete Davidson, also delivered a killer performance of God Is A Woman.

2019

Cardi B took home an award after taking the rap scene by storm (Picture: WIreImage)

The 2019 VMAs saw Taylor Swift return for a mash-up of Lover and You Need To Calm Down, while Lizzo also delighted us with her flute-playing abilities.

Missy Elliott became the first female rapper to win the Michael Jackson video vanguard award while Normani, having branched out as a soloist, gave us that incredible dance break during Motivation.

2020

The Weeknd showed up for the first virtual ceremony (Picture: Getty)

In the year of Covid and the success of Blinding Lights on TikTok, a virtual ceremony was held live from New York for the first time as we all got used to a new way of living and socialising.

The show was dedicated to actor Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer two days before the ceremony.

2021

Olivia Rodrigo is just smashing life right now – a new VMAs icon in the making? (Picture: Getty)

Olivia Rodrigo was the artist of the moment last year, as she took home three awards.

The 2021 ceremony also saw Lil Nas X and Korean pop icons BTS win big as the show was held in person again for the first time.

With the 2022 VMAs around the corner, we’re counting on more iconic performances and meme-worthy moments this year.

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