Madonna helped set the provocative and boundary-pushing reputation of MTV Video Music Award performances at the show's inaugural ceremony in 1984 when she crawled and rolled around the stage in a sexy bridal ensemble to her hit, "Like a Virgin."
In 1990, the iconic performer put a sexy spin on 18th century France with this unforgettable routine to her famous track, "Vogue."
With her first solo performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000, Britney Spears dominated the stage in a now-iconic glittering nude costume to "Oops!...I Did It Again" and "Satisfaction." In those four minutes, she simultaneously cemented herself as a legendary part of the show's history.
The following year, the singer managed to top herself when she took the jungle-themed stage with a few wild co-stars to the tune of "I'm a Slave 4 U." First, she appeared inside a cage with a tiger and later danced with seven-foot albino Burmese python named Banana around her neck.
While Spears pushed the VMA boundaries with her previous performances, nothing was quite as shocking at the time as when she, Christina Aguilera and Madonna kissed during "Hollywood" in 2003 while dressed as brides and a groom.
For her first performance at the award show, Lady Gaga proved she doesn't hold back for her art as she concluded her avant-garde performance of "Paparazzi" bloodied and hanging above the crowd.
While Beyoncé is always one to deliver a standout show, her 2011 performance of "Love on Top" at the Video Music Awards will go down in history as one of her all-time most memorable since it also famously served as a pregnancy announcement.
If there's one shocking performance that comes to everyone's mind when thinking about the MTV Video Music Awards, it would be Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's controversial routine to "Blurred Lines" in 2013. Whether it was the dancing bears or the foam finger or Cyrus' twerking, the performance remains one of the most talked about moments in the show's history all these years later.
The same year she dropped her acclaimed visual album, Lemonade, Beyoncé impressively brought the tracks to life—bat included—on the VMA stage.
Hailed as one of her best performances to date, Ariana Grande's live rendition of "God Is a Woman" finished with some very special guest stars: her mom and grandma.
Lizzo redefined "good as hell" at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards as she delivered the ultra empowering performance of the night—inflatable butt, hair tosses and drinking from a bedazzled tequila bottle included.
Between the Chromatica track list, impressive choreography, costume changes and an appearance from Ariana Grande for "Rain on Me"—all while masked—Lady Gaga dazzled viewers doing what she does best: putting on an unforgettable performance.