NEW YORK (REUTERS) - Beyonce dominated the MTV Video Music awards on Sunday (Monday, August 29 in Singapore), prowling the stage with a 10 minute medley from her powerful Lemonade album and taking home multiple statuettes, including the top prize - video of the year.
On a night when women ruled, Britney Spears made a triumphant return to the VMA stage and Rihanna performed four times to mark her lifetime achievement award.
Beyonce brought the house down at New York's Madison Square Garden, stringing together five of her Lemonade album tracks about betrayal, revenge and female empowerment in a song and dance routine that brought a long standing ovation.
VMA organisers had announced only three hours before Sunday's show began that Beyonce would perform. The singer arrived on the red carpet accompanied by the mothers of three African-American men who have died at the hands of US police in the past two years.
Her politically-charged Formation beat Adele's 2015 comeback single Hello, Drake's Hotline Bling, Justin Bieber's Sorry and Kanye West's sleeping nude celebrity look-alikes in Famous for video of the year.
She also won best female video and prizes for choreography, editing, and long form video in the awards that are voted on by fans.
Where Beyonce was angry and bold, Spears, 34, dressed in a sparkly gold leotard and matching over the knee boots was slinky retro pop. It was the Toxic singer's first time on the VMA stage since her humiliating 2007 performance when her personal and professional life was falling apart, and follows the release of a new album last week.
Fifth Harmony, the five-girl group that won TV talent show The X Factor, took home two Moonman awards.
Kanye West, who has often hijacked the live VMA show, presented a new video for his single Fade. West preceded the video with a rambling, improvised speech that touched on poverty, his wife Kim Kardashian, his long-running feud with Taylor Swift, and violence in black neighborhoods.
"We are undeniably the influencers, the thought leaders," he said, before screening what he called a "piece of my art."
Many of pop music's biggest names, including Justin Bieber, Britain's Adele and Taylor Swift were absent at the award ceremony.
