Five Biggest Jaw-Droppers From the MTV Video Music Awards

From One Direction's dominance to Nicki Minaj sharing the spotlight with an Olympian, here's what surprised us!

By Natalie Finn Sep 07, 2012 12:00 PMTags
One Direction, Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

So, the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards were last night. Yeah...

But though the brief-by-awards-show-standards event lacked the sort of Swiftian, Britneyfied, Kid-Rocky drama that has characterized years past, the ceremony was not without its shocking moments.

Along with some extremely strong performances (shout-out to Frank Ocean!) and the overall pleasant vibes (host Kevin Hart even congratulated Snooki on her baby), here are five things from the show that sent our jaws dropping:

1. One Direction Hogs the Map: The British boy band, created by Simon Cowell in a lab (or on the U.K.'s X Factor, whatever), won a leading three moonmen tonight: Best Pop Video, Best New Artist and Most Share-Worthy Video, all for "What Makes You Beautiful." In running roughshod over the field, they topped what we thought were standard fan favorites like Justin Bieber (good thing he didn't bother to show), Rihanna, Maroon 5 and Carly Rae Jepsen. The lads also were lucky enough to score kisses on their smooth little cheeks from Katy Perry—except for Niall Horan, who got a full-on lip-lock!

Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images

2. Rihanna Gets Down With the People: Crowd-diving was rather commonplace (even Taylor Swift got in the act) last night, but Rihanna actually performed part of her show-opening number on the floor. Amid a crush of adoring fans. With only a couple of hard-working security guards to keep things from going terribly, terribly wrong. But Ri-Ri is nothing if not a survivor—and she made it through the grabby throng with nary a closely cropped hair out of place.

Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

3. Gabby Douglas Tumbles for Nicki Minaj: Though the entire Fierce Five was on hand to introduce Minaj's duet with Alicia Keys on "Girl on Fire," only one member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team quickly changed clothes and actually did gymnastics during the performance. And though it was heavy on the cheese factor, we still preferred it to Minaj's over-baked spectacle at the Grammys.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

5. Drake and Chris Brown's Hatchet Stays Buried: Whatever happened to the good old days of Kid Rock and Tommy Lee throwing down in the audience? Just kidding, it's wonderful that Brown and Drake, just a couple months removed from a bar brawl between their entourages—duly acknowledged by Hart in his monologue—threw neither physical nor verbal punches at each other tonight.

Maybe everyone just happened to pick the same night to grow up.

Well, not One Direction or little Egypt, but they've got time.