The show was full of surprises and near misses

The stars were out in full force during a massive MTV VMA production at New York’s Radio City Music Hall Monday (Aug 20th) night. The annual show saw the likes of Camila Cabello, Cardi B, Childish Gambino and more take home Moon Men trophies as the big winners of the night.

Camila Cabello won two trophies for Artist of the Year and Video of the Year for her collaboration “Havana” with Young Thug, respectively. Cardi B won Best New Artist, Song of Summer for “I Like It” with Bad Bunny and J Balvin and Best Collaboration with Jennifer Lopez and DJ Khalid for “Dinero.” Childish Gambino also nabbed three trophies for “This Is America,” scoring the Best Video with a Message, Best Direction and Best Choreography categories.

Other winners include Imagine Dragons, Avicii, Rita Ora, J Balvin, Post Malone, 21 Savage and more.

Performers included Nicki Minaj and a medley of her hits “Majesty,” “Barbie Dreams,” “Ganja Burn” and “Fefe.” Panic! At The Disco performed “High Hopes” from their Pray for the Wicked album. Ariana Grande made a blasphemous music video-like performance out of “God Is A Woman” with a Last Supper-esque all female cast. Jennifer Lopez, who received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, performed a medley of her hits that rocked the arena.

The show wrapped with a collaboration performance between Aerosmith, Post Malone and 21 Savage singing a medley of hits. Post Malone kicked off the ending with “Rockstar” before introducing “fucking Aerosmith” and leading into “Dream On” and “Toys in the Attic,” not their highly-predicted “Walk This Way” finale.

The network attempted to honor Aretha Franklin, who passed away last week, but left viewers confused and outraged instead. Madonna took to the stage to introduce Video of the Year and spoke of how the Queen of Soul changed her life. May taking to social media to express their outrage of not having a proper tribute and the Material Girl making the moment about her instead of Franklin.

TWhe awards program generated more than 2.3 million social posts since the start of the red carpet shows. According to international social media analytics firm Talkwalker, the top trending celebrity was Nicki Manaj with 86.4K mentions, while Ariana Grande was a distant second with 51.6K. Looking at top brands, the obvious number one is MTV with 54.3K mentions. But the number two brand trending is Madonna with 38.9K mentions, many of those critical of her Aretha Franklin tribute.

Winners:

Video of the Year
Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug – “Havana”

Best Video With a Message
Childish Gambino – “This Is America”

Best Collaboration
Jennifer Lopez ft. DJ Khaled & Cardi B – “Dinero”

Best New Artist
Cardi B

Artist of the Year
Camila Cabello

Best Rock Video
Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”

Best Dance Video
Avicii ft. Rita Ora – “Lonely Together”

Best Latin Video
J Balvin, Willy William – “Mi Gente”

Song of the Year
Post Malone ft. 21 Savage – “Rockstar”

Best Direction
Childish Gambino – “This Is America”, Directed by Hiro Murai

Best Art Direction
The Carters – “APES**T”, Art Direction by Jan Houlevigue

Best Visual Effects
Kendrick Lamar & SZA – “All The Stars”, Visual Effects by Loris Paillier for BUF Paris

Best Editing
N.E.R.D & Rihanna – “Lemon”, Editing by Taylor Ward

Best Cinematography
The Carters – “APES**T”, Cinematography by Benoit Debie

Best Choreography
Childish Gambino – “This Is America”, Choreography by Sherrie Silver

Best Pop Video
Ariana Grande – “No Tears Left To Cry”

Best Hip Hop Video
Nicki Minaj – “Chun Li”

Push Artist of the Year
Hayley Kiyoko

Song of Summer
Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin – “I Like It”