Britney Spears VMA Tribute: Why Did It Feel More Like A Tribute To Beyonce? (VIDEO)

Britney Spears was awarded the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award, the VMA's lifetime achievement award, at the show Sunday night, but you wouldn't know it from watching. The vision behind Britney's big tribute was so poorly conceived, it bordered on surreal, like much of the night.

To begin, we have Lady Gaga's alter ego, Jo Calderone, overstaying his welcome to introduce a musical homage to Britney's hits.

What we get is barely more than a minute run-through of a few of her songs, performed as if they're on speed, and ending inappropriately (and perhaps appropriately reflecting reality) with a group of oversexualized little girls dressed in a collection of classic Britney get-ups.

Britney then takes the stage, and we think, OK, they'll let her say her piece and that will be that. Instead, the VMAs push our two pop stars -- Gaga and Brit Brit -- together in a throwback to Britney's kiss with Madonna, which we assume is meant to symbolize some bizarre coming-together of old-world pop and new-world pop. From Britney's awkwardness in dealing with this, it becomes immediately apparent that, a.) she wasn't ready for this closeup, and b.) these worlds gain nothing from interacting.

Then comes the kicker -- Britney reading the following robotically off a teleprompter as Gaga ogles her and scratches herself:

This award means so much to me, especially on the night before Michael Jackson's birthday. He had such a huge influence on me, Gaga, and our next performer, Beyonce. Beyonce and I started out around the same time, and just like all of her fans, I fell in love with her. The first time I saw her from her singing to dancing to acting, she can do it all, she's a triple threat, and one of the most talented people I have ever seen.

Wait, isn't this supposed to be Britney's acceptance speech, not an ode to Beyonce and segue to her performance of "Love on Top"?

No, better to bring together the new world of Lady Gaga, the old world of Beyonce and the older world of Michael Jackson, because using your honorary guest to make a painfully simple commentary is more important than offering a meaningful tribute to... your honorary guest. Maybe they should have just given the award to Beyonce, who's stayed more relevant through the years anyways.

WATCH Britney's tribute:

WATCH Britney's speech:

Get More: 2011 VMA, Music

Comments

[Jerel Freiheit]

06:24 PM on 10/23/2011

First off, beyonce has NEVER been more relevant than Britney Spears. Second, I do agree that it was kind of weird how they mashed britney's moment into beyonce's introduction performance. I still recorded it, because I thought the girl's performance was cool & I was excited about beyonce's prego announcment because I am a huge fan of beyonce as well as britney, but I do agree, britney's moment should have been longer! We're talking about one of the BIGGEST pop stars EVER! She deserved a way bigger tribute. I think after the tween girls performance other up & coming artist (Male & female) should have sang some of her classics as well as bits of her current hits. The tribute is what EVERYBODY was looking forward to, no matter what genre you're into or who your a fan of, people were looking forward to britney spears' tribute & expected more. Don't get me wrong, I thought the dancers did AWESOME! BUt I wanted to see more.

[RichelleRichie]

02:17 AM on 09/05/2011

I loved this moment with Britney, You could tell Gaga was really into her character!!! LOL

[Holypat777]

11:41 AM on 09/01/2011

Dear, People

Please listen to Ricky Lee Jones. Now THAT's talent!

[daverusso99]

11:42 PM on 08/31/2011

Certain awards like the Lifetime Achievement Award should start at a certain age...

www.comicdaverusso.blogspot.com

[rosnik]

05:58 PM on 08/31/2011

She is an inch away from being "off her rocker".

[Tre Members]

02:12 PM on 08/31/2011

They speed through the Britney songs because 1. they didn't want you to notice that they are really the same song, just with different titles 2. now that you are an adult you may notice how much they suck...

[DarkTruths]

04:16 PM on 08/30/2011

Beyonce probably wouldn't agree to perform unless they mentioned her every five minutes. What a media ho.

[whomod]

03:57 PM on 08/30/2011

Seeing as how all these faux musicians almost without fail always credit Michael Jackson and Madonna with inspiring their own shtick whenever they win any awards, can we just go right out and say that Jackson and Madonna killed the notion of being a 'musician' and replaced it with being a 'performer' who is expected to play vacuous fluff while being accompanied by backup dancers and they also galavant around stage doing choreographed nonsense?

[p4poetic]

04:45 AM on 08/31/2011

Jackson was a musician, a performer and an artist.

[TooKrunk]

12:40 PM on 08/31/2011

you forgot pervert

[gemini68]

12:27 PM on 08/31/2011

Michael Jackson killed the the notion of being a 'musician' really?? How? He wrote and produced his own music. What are your 'requirements' for being a a real musician? Is it only a specific type of music that qualifies to you? Perhaps you should look up definition of what a musician is: mu·si·cian (my-zshn)
n.
One who composes, conducts, or performs music, especially instrumental music.

Note that the word "Perform" is included in the description of musician.

[only1nik]

08:02 AM on 08/30/2011

so glad i didn't see any of this.

[copelli21]

10:50 AM on 08/30/2011

me too.

[bridgeman]

10:35 PM on 08/29/2011

the original rebecca black

[glojet]

05:15 PM on 08/29/2011

ugh beyonce's music always sounds tired and 90's. she would be better as a vegas performer..vegas is always like 2 decades behind the rest of us, right?

[whomod]

04:00 PM on 08/30/2011

That's exactly what I think of most of this popular music where you have singers and backup dancers rather than actual musicians who wrote their own stuff and perform it.

It's Vegas stuff, it's what you'd pay for when you saw Dean Martin or someone, it's not music that challenges or inspires in any way shape or form. it's MERE entertainment. A commodity to be enjoyed in that second and never give it a second thought the second it ends.

[unpaidpundit]

03:57 PM on 08/29/2011

Wha? Beyonce has remained more relevant through the years? If anyone is keeping score, and you can bet Beyonce and her record label are, here are the singles results for a few artists' most recent albums.

Lady Gaga: 3 top ten singles
Britney: 3 top ten singles
Katy Perry: 5 number one singles
Beyonce: 0 top ten singles in two tries

Maybe its time Beyonce started thinking about getting the girls of Destiny's Child back together again, if she wants to remain relevant.

[grod805]

10:51 PM on 08/30/2011

I'm pretty sure "Halo" and "Single Ladies" made it to number one.

[p4poetic]

04:46 AM on 08/31/2011

I don't think relevant means what you think it means.

Hit singles has nothing to do with relevancy. What has Britney done in the past 6 years musically, not her personal life/drama?

[pab08]

03:50 PM on 08/29/2011

Maybe it felt that way because Gaga and Beyonce are relevant today and Brit-Brit is not?
But all three of them are canned, corporate creations with little or no lasting musical value, so who really cares?

[GOATLEY3]

03:22 PM on 08/29/2011

How do you get a life time achievement award and you're not even 30?

[glojet]

05:16 PM on 08/29/2011

she started out when she was 15

[Cdangers]

12:35 AM on 08/30/2011

You do understand what a lifetime award means right? She's 29.

[GoneLongGone]

02:41 PM on 08/30/2011

A lifetime award is meant for a lifetime of work, not just a few years out of an entire lifetime.

[2083]

02:24 AM on 08/30/2011

When you have no talent to begin with and it's apparent to all you will not be developing any. Expect Gaga's within the next 10 years.

[GOATLEY3]

03:04 PM on 08/29/2011

Ummmm, does anyone else see the irony in giving a lifetime achievement award to someone whose not even 30?

[p4poetic]

04:47 AM on 08/31/2011

Madonna, Janet and Michael won Lifetime Achievement Awards before they were 30.

[MirnaM]

02:59 PM on 08/31/2011

No, they didn't. Janet just got one a few years ago and she's 45. Michael got one the year before he died. Did Madonna even get one yet?