This past Sunday, August 27, 2017, the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards took place at The Forum in Inglewood, California, honoring music videos released between June 25, 2016 and June 23, 2017. The host of this event was pop singer Katy Perry. Expectedly, the VMA’s entertained us with a mix of performances, jokes, and shade thrown at other celebrities.

The awards show started with an incredible performance by Kendrick Lamar. His fire-themed performance consisted of “DNA” and “HUMBLE” from his newest album, “DAMN” which was released earlier this year in April. Lamar walked into the show with eight nominations and left with six awards, making him the night’s big winner. The rapper deservedly picked up the awards for best video, best hip-hop video, best art direction, best visual effects, best cinematography and best direction.

One of the night’s most talked about celebrity, Taylor Swift, was actually not present at the show, which was very weird. However, her new crazy music video was there to debut which sparked many fans and viewers to talk about it on social media. Swift released her weird, yet interesting music video for her new single “Look What You Made Me Do,” which no doubtingly threw shade at Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, and other celebrities. This music video is pretty unnecessary since the feud has died down between Swift and the celebrities mentioned.

Swift wasn’t the only celebrity to throw shade as Fifth Harmony had done so too, but even worse. The female group directed it towards former member Camila Cabello. The performance had started out with a total of five body figures standing on top of a platform when one of them was suddenly thrown off into the background. The fifth figure obviously represented Cabello since she left the group to pursue a solo career. This act was also pretty unnecessary since Cabello left the group a couple of months ago.

Other show-stoppers from the night include an emotional, uplifting performance from Logic, featuring Alessia Cara and Khalid. The performance consisted of Logic’s track “1-800-273-8255,” which focused on his own struggles with depression and suicide prevention. The rapper was also joined on stage by many suicide attempt survivors, who wore shirts featuring the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s phone number. With calls to the lifeline increased by fifty percent, this performance was the most special one of the night.

As for Katy Perry’s duty as a host, she did alright. At times, she was very annoying, always making a reference to some other celebrity. She also managed to make comments about Donald Trump, referring to the show as one that respected the popular vote. Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj took the stage to end the night with a mediocre performance of “Swish Swish.”

Overall, the night’s show was an above average one compared to others. There were very exciting performances, but with boring and annoying segments in between. Those segments of course could have been avoided if Katy Perry were not the host.