InstagramLast night was supposed to be Beyoncé's night. She took the stage for a record-breaking 15 minutes. She performed basically every song from Lemonade. She looked, well, completely fabulous.
And yet, she was totally and completely upstaged...and by her own daughter, no less.
Yes, one Blue Ivy Carter swooped right into the 2016 VMAs and straight-up stole the show. It was Blue Ivy's world, and everybody else was just living in it. The entire world is abuzz today with musings over just how little Blue got so bad ass. But that said, it certainly isn't the first time that she's commanded attention at the MTV awards show. In fact, she's been doing so even before she was born.
It all started with the 2011 VMAs. Bey was on hand to perform the perennial favorite "Love On Top," when she finished up her set by opening up her tuxedo jacket and revealing...a baby bump.
As can be imagined, the crowd went wild. Beyonce and Jay Z, America's true Royal Couple (sorry, Kimye, but this was before your time!) was going to bring us our own Royal Queen B was with child! With a Prince or Princess B! Her big jacket reveal was met with squeals, screams, freak-outs and just general merriment. But that was just the beginning, because as soon as word spread around the Internet that the performance had a surprise ending, it was all anyone could talk about.
Can anyone name anything else that happened that year? Do we even remember who else was there? No, we don't, because all that matters is that little Blue Ivy was in the womb.
The following year Beyoncé didn't even attempt to follow up her now-infamous 2012 appearance, showing that she was already getting wise to the fact that this new addition in her life was going to be a major scene-stealer. (Although, in all fairness, Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose did try, somewhat unsuccessfully, to capture some of the magic by announcing their own pregnancy.)
Then comes the 2014 event. Bey pulled together a great lineup; she closed out the live show by performing a medley of jams and giving a feminist manifesto (go Bey!). She even won that year's Video Vanguard Award. She should have been the night's resounding winner, except for one huge fact: It was Blue Ivy's (post-birth) VMAs debut. She was on hand (with her dad, too, but who cares?) to help her mom accept said Video Vanguard Award, and she came fully loaded with the cuteness.
The whole family took to the stage to hand over her trophy and Blue needed only to utter three simple words to keep a lasting hold on the world's collective memory: "Good job, mommy!"
Oh, and if that adorable family moment wasn't enough to tug at the heartstrings, when Blue wasn't onstage reminding everyone that she is a prodigy, she was sitting in the audience looking like this. And yes, that is the "Single Ladies" hand-wave she's doing. The child is barely two and she knows Beyoncé's dance moves! How is anyone supposed to compete with that—even the woman who created this masterpiece of a toddler is in her shadow.
Then cut to this year, and it's deja vu. Sure, 2016 didn't have the all-out hysteria of a pregnancy announcement or the aww-factor of baby's first VMAs, but Blue Ivy brought it no less. She walked the carpet with finesse, attitude, and an $11,000 dress. There truly are words to describe the command of this four-year-old, and it's not even worth it to try. We're just so moved that Blue Ivy found it in her heart to allow her mom to walk the red carpet with her.
She even took it upon herself to give the frenzied throng of flash-bulb-waving photographers a piece of her mind (that piece being the fact that she's really not a fan).
Watch out, Bey, because we've got a superstar on our hands. To the next five years of VMA domination and more, Blue.