Increasingly Empowered Women in the Music Industry

The most recognized female artist of the night was Lady Gaga, who took home 5 VMAs from the top categories: Song of the Year, Best Collaboration, Best Cinematography, Best Artist, and The Tricon Award for her latest album "Chromatica" including her song "Rain on me" featuring Ariana Grande.

Lady Gaga amazed the public with her eye-catching live performance with the hits of her most recent music releases: "Enigma," "Chromatica II," "911", "Rain on me," and "Stupid Love."

One of the most amazing things of Gaga's show was promoting the use of the mask even while singing and dancing: she applied this rule to all her team, including dancers and her pop colleague, Ariana Grande, becoming the only presentation of the night reminding the audience the importance of respecting the protection measures to prevent the propagation of COVID-19.

Although other artists wore the mask for their acceptance speech, the only professionals that sacrificed vanity for safety while performing were Gaga and Grande. 

The "A Star is Born" actress shared a powerful message after winning Song of the Year for "Rain on me" featuring one of the biggest stars of the moment. Gaga told encouraging words for her fans: "…even with that much rain. You don't have to drown. Even though it feels like you are, you can still swim".

Girls' power is an international anthem. As proof of it, the K-Pop group Blackpink won Song of the Summer for her song "How You Like That," which has over 550 million views on YouTube. Recently, the Asian idols collaborated with Selena Gomez for their latest record, "Ice Cream." Gomez partnered with a businesswoman mind with the famous New York restaurant Serendipity to release her ice cream flavor "Cookies & Cream Remix," which presents the same aesthetic in Blackpink's music video with the former Disney star.

Miley Cyrus showed an artistic performance with red lights and a stunning black dress that looked great when she performed "Midnight Sky". There is no doubt of Cyrus' great taste. That's why she won Best Art Direction and Best Editing for her hit song "Mother's Daughter." It is a feminist record since the singer assures that she doesn't belong to anyone while looking strong, independent, and confident. 

For its part, Taylor Swift could not attend the VMAs, but she accepted her Best Direction award for her song "The Man," through a pre-recorded video aired during the announcement. Swift said, "I want to take an opportunity to say thank you to the team who believed in me as a first-time director and made this video with me."

The R&B Grammy winner artist H.E.R also had a special recognition for her touching song "I Can't Breathe," which is inspired by the Black Live Matters movement, and speak up while spreading peace message through her platform. The prodigious singer called by her followers as a "black queen" took home the Video for Good award.

Also read: Where was Selena Gomez?

One of the music industry's favorites, thanks to her incredible talent and deep and addictive voice, Dua Lipa won Best Visual Effects for her 80s inspired song "Physical," which brings with it nostalgia vibes and a strong feeling that gets everybody dancing. During an interview with Billboard, Lipa described this acclaimed song with the words "it's quite flash dancey, it's fun, you can dance to it… it's my craziest of high energy songs".

Now, if you are familiar with TikTok trends, you have probably already heard the iconic and empowering hip-hop record "Savage." This song went crazy viral on the internet. Many women from different cultures and countries filmed themselves dancing to this contagious beat. The author, Megan Thee Stallion, won the category of Best Hip-Hop Video.

Talking about artists that went viral thanks to TikTok, Doja Cat is not the exception. After the charismatic Doja broke the internet with her sweet voice and catchy rapping for her hit "Say So," the VMAs gave her a warm welcome to the music scene with the trophy for Best New Artist. She looked as extravagant and beautiful as always.

Finally, a touching history for the last award of the night given to a woman: The Everyday Heroes special mention. Lori Marie Key is a nurse that sang with all her heart "Amazing Grace" to inspire her colleagues and all the people present at Michigan Hospital during a shift change. Marie's spontaneous act of kindness up-lift the hospital's hopeless environment, mainly because of the current pandemic, and brought many smiles with her angelic voice.

Although the VMAs distributed the awards legally between women and men, the night's most iconic presentations were filled by joy and female voices, which is a significant step in an industry that has been traditionally so tough with women.