New York rapper Cardi B kicked off the
MTV Video Music Award (VMA) show on Monday, where politics
quickly took center stage with a performance highlighting U.S.
President Donald Trump's controversial immigration policies.
Dozens of immigrant children and their families, wearing
white t-shirts saying "We are all human beings," joined rapper
Logic on the VMA stage in New York City for his song "One Day."
The song and a new music video protest the zero tolerance
policy that saw thousands of immigrant children separated from
their parents in June after crossing the southern border with
Mexico without documents.
The National Domestic Workers Alliance said in a statement
that they and two other groups had helped to organize the
performance.
Cardi B, in her first public appearance since giving birth
to her first child in July, picked up an early win for song of
summer for her dance hit "I Like It" with J Balvin and Bad
Bunny.
Rapper #CardiB opened up the #VMAs in true Cardi fashion lol, but were we the only ones who thought she was performing?! 🤔 pic.twitter.com/6EcSra15GK
— BroTalk Live (@brotalklive) August 21, 2018
Sis out here throwing shade 👀 * sips tea * #VMAs #CardiB pic.twitter.com/ajDn5Vjky5
— 🉐 (@realofficialn) August 21, 2018
#cardib played all of us! 😂 #VMAs pic.twitter.com/opYbrVrxyh
— swʎʎɥʇ ✌ (@thyyms) August 21, 2018
The 25-year-old singer went into Monday's fan-voted ceremony
with a leading 10 nominations after a breakthrough year that saw
a string of brash female empowerment hits like "Bodak Yellow."
It was also a big night for recently engaged Ariana Grande,
25, who won the best pop video award for "No Tears Left to Cry"
and was making her first public outing with fiance Pete
Davidson.
Jennifer Lopez brought the audience to its feet with a song
and dance medley of her biggest hits as she was presented with
MTV's annual Vanguard Award, named after Michael Jackson,
recognizing her 20 years in show business.
#CardiB #jlo and #djkhaled won best collaboration @ the #vmas pic.twitter.com/MAfueG0Uqo
— #TotalGossips (@total_gossips) August 21, 2018
"It's been an incredible journey of dreaming my wildest
dreams, and then watching them come true," said Lopez.
Cardi B and Bruno Mars, Beyonce and husband Jay-Z, and
Childish Gambino are competing for the top prize - video of the
year - against Grande's "No Tears Left to Cry," Camila Cabello's
"Havana," and Drake's "God's Plan."
But Beyoncé and Jay-Z, along with Gambino, Bruno Mars and
Drake were among several top artists not attending the ceremony
in New York City.
Performing as The Carters, Beyoncé and Jay -Z earned eight
nominations for their "APES**T" video, which was shot inside the
Louvre in Paris against the backdrop of some of the world's most
famous art works.
Childish Gambino, the music stage name of actor Donald
Glover, earned seven nominations for his hard-hitting video
"This Is America" about black identity and police brutality.
The VMAs, the first gathering of top music artists since the
death last week of Aretha Franklin, will honor the soul singer
during the show, organizers have said, but no details have been
given of what is planned.