2007 VMA | About The Show

50 Cent We knew we wouldn't have any trouble getting 50 Cent to come to the VMAs if we held them in the only American city where it's legal to be a P.I.M.P. He came and threw down in Timbaland and JT's Fantasy Suite.

Akon Dear Akon, thanks for not picking anybody up and throwing them hard into the audience at the VMAs. And thanks for kickin' "Smack That" with VMA DJ Mark Ronson. Really, thanks so much, Us.

William Beckett
(The Academy Is...) William Beckett, the band's frontman rolled the dice in Vegas and won over everyone in sight as he performed "Snakes on a Plane (Bring it)" with Cobra Starship during Fall Out Boy's VMA Fantasy Suite bash!

Chris Brown This R&B hot boy is at the top of his game and he proved it! He showed off his fancy footwork during a medley that included his own "Wall To Wall" and "Kiss Me," a little of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and an appearance by Rihanna who contributed her "Umbrella."

Cee-Lo The sweet soul side of Gnarls Barkley graced us with all his gospel glory on VMA Night and continued to surprise the hell out of us. He jammed with the Foo Fighters, singing Prince's "Darling Nikki" and chiming in with Queens Of The Stone Age on "Make it Wit Chu" to blow us away.

Cobra Starship Remember "Snakes on a Plane (Bring it)?" Hell, yeah! It's even better when Cobra Starship performs it with The Academy Is... frontman William Becket during Fall Out Boy's VMA Fantasy Suite party!

Common We cornered him after the TRL VMA press conference and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. He came in to Vegas and ripped it up in Kanye's 'Good Life' Fantasy Suite. Ahhhh ...

Eagles Of Death Metal The party the Foo Fighters tossed during the VMAs quickly became the new home of Headbangers Ball with the likes of Eagles Of Death Metal kicking in for a set on the Fantasy Suite stage, and the band's Josh Homme also led his Queens Of The Stone Age through a set AND sat in with Mastadon.

Fall Out Boy This ain't an award show, it's a circus, so we invited our old buddies, Fall Out Boy. We gave them a Fantasy Suite and they threw a sweaty party/concert with Rihanna, Gym Class Heroes, Panic! At The Disco, Lil Wayne and Cobra Starship.

Foo Fighters Don't hand Dave Grohl the keys to a Fantasy Suite at The Palms. We did and got the bill for the damage caused by the Foos, Mastodon, Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme and Motörhead's Lemmy. Lemmy! This was crazy hard rockin' that shook the neon down on the strip.

Nelly Furtado No matter what planet she's from, we still love her. She's so sweet and sings like an angel. And she did just that for us, closing the show with "Do It" in an awesome medley performance with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland.

Gym Class Heroes The band that's good at everything was a shoe-in for the Best New Artist Moonman they carried home. And they celebrated that win in grand style, playin' a few songs in Fall Out Boy's Fantasy Suite that blew us away!

Keri Hilson This up and coming R&B star was tapped by Timbaland to join in on the VMA finale, closing the show with Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and Tim, too. If that's not an honor, what is?

Alicia Keys She presented AND she performed a new song, "No One," and a bit of "Freedom," too. And she was fabulously fabulous in a fabulous way. Fabulous!

Lemmy (Motörhead) The Motörhead bassist/singer/spiritual leader took over lead vocals to rip through Probot's "Shake Your Blood" in front of the Foo Fighters during the band's insane rock bash in their VMA Fantasy Suite.

Lil Wayne The #1 MC in the game, according to MTV News, dropped by the VMAs to show his stuff, joining Fall Out Boy for a Fantasy Suite performance of their hit, "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race."

Mastodon These massive metal monsters commandeered the Foo Fighters' equipment during their VMA Fantasy Suite party and performed "Colony of Birchmen" with Queens Of Stone Age/Eagles Of Death Metal's Josh Homme sitting in.

Daniel Merriweather Bored with the U.S.A.? Hope you enjoyed this sweet slice of Australian nice as he reprised his vocal turn on VMA DJ Mark Ronson's "Stop Me." He's all up in American hip-hop's business, but his sound is more soul and ambience.

Petey Pablo Nobody loves Sin City as much as a Southern Baller, and Petey Pablo proved it when he dipped into the Justin Timberlake/ Timbaland-hosted VMA Fantasy Suite party to perform his hit "Freak-A-Leek." We love that.

Panic! At The Disco Can you believe they acted like they owned the place? Sure, they're from Las Vegas, but just barging into Fall Out Boy's Fantasy Suite party during the VMAs and taking over the stage! The audacity! Fittingly, we had them carted away by some very attractive cops.

Queens Of The
Stone Age The world's most beloved band performed "Make It Wit Chu" with Cee-Lo and Dave Grohl during the Foo Fighters VMA Fantasy Suite party. AND frontman Josh Homme also joined Mastodon as they ripped through "Colony of Birchmen," plus he played an Eagles Of Death Metal set.

Rihanna Fine, we admit it. We LOVE her. Not only did she turn out her "Umbrella" during an awesome medley with Chris Brown, this incredibly talented Barbadian belter whipped out a version of "Shut Up and Drive" with Fall Out Boy that blew the lid off the house!

Mark Ronson British turntable genius Mark Ronson has tattooed his name on music history's face with his monster record collection and brilliant remixes. Then he DJ'd our show, performed with Akon, Maroon 5's Adam Levine and Daniel Merriweather. Wow!

Soulja Boy We were looking all around The Palms during the VMAs for Soulja Boy and, go figure, we found the Chicago rapper crankin' it with his Windy City pal Kanye West.

Britney Spears After a rough time, Brit's comeback seemed like a natural opened our big Vegas spectacle. And there's no doubt that hers was the most highly anticipated and talked about performance of the night.

Serj Tankian
(System Of A Down) The System Of A Down frontman and solo artist performed a cover of the Dead Kennedys' punk classic "Holiday In Camodia" during the Foo Fighters VMA Fantasy Suite party.

T.I. One of the South's most lethal mouths couldn't resist jumpin' up in during a Fantasy Suite party tossed by Justin Timberlake and Timbaland to perform his smash "Big Things Poppin' (Do It)."

Timbaland Look at Timbaland working overtime! He booked the bands, he programmed the beats, took the stage as a performer AND he threw a fantastic Fantasy Suite party with Justin Timberlake that included performances by 50 Cent, T.I. and Petey Pablo!

T-Pain We really thought that if we invited him to Las Vegas, that he's buy us a drank. Instead, he spit rhymes during Kanye West's uber-exclusive Fantasy Suite party performance. Turns out that was better.

Kanye West Where would we be without Kanye West? No matter his feelings towards us at any given moment, we love him to the very core. His Fantasy Suite party was off the chain and insane and near the end of our show, he was performing on the glass balcony high above Vegas, a shot we could only catch with a freakin' helicopter. Talk about drama!

Pamela Anderson Larger than life in every sense of the word, what better place for newfound magic enthusiast Pamela Anderson than Las Vegas? Please don't say your place.

Mary J. Blige When you need someone credible to introduce someone as important as Dr. Dre, who do you turn to? Mary J., of course! Passionate and emotional, she is our touchstone to what is real.

Rosario Dawson This cool beauty has always walked on the wild side with roles in movies like Sin City and KIDS, so she fit right in at the VMAs.

Diddy He once hosted the VMAs for us, plus he's delivered so many great videos to our doorstep, we invite him to just about everything, and our Las Vegas bash was no exception. He was gracious enough to introduce the finale performance with Young Joc, as his original partner, Kid Rock, got pulled from the crowd after a scuffle with Tommy Lee.

Dr. Dre We didn't let this one out of the bag, and for good reason. Dre is an icon. He's not only a mammoth presence in hip-hop, but an intense influence on music as a whole over the last two decades. To have told anyone that he would present the night's biggest award, Video of the Year, would have overshadowed the whole event. Shut down Vegas. He's that big.

Entourage's Adrian Grenier and Kevin Connolly Wait... Vinny and E aren't ... real people ... are they? No, but video camera buff Adrian Grenier and Kevin Connolly were and that's how they rolled.

Eve OK, fine, honestly we're scared to death of her, so when she said she wanted to come to Vegas, we could only say, 'Yes.' And, face it, she's awesome.

Megan Fox Ohhh gggggodddddd she's so hot!!! We were totally gonna play it cool with the 'Transformers' star when she sat at our VMA table. But we blew it.

Jamie Foxx Jack of all trades filled the world in on the Kid Rock/Tommy Lee throwdown from the stage. Then he freestyled a little nuttiness that Jennifer Garner had to rein in. Big fun.

Jennifer Garner Teaming her up with Jamie Foxx was mean, but Jen handled him by letting him go then pulling him in. And it worked! She can do anything. ::sigh::

The Hills' Lauren Conrad, Whitney Port and Audrina Patridge The girls from The Hills -- well, those who were still talking to one another at the time the VMAs took place in Vegas, anyway -- were on hand to present the Moon Man for Male Artist of the Year. And they looked fabulous doing it, too.

Jennifer Hudson This 'Dreamgirl' brought even more shimmer and shine to the Las Vegas strip and we appreciated it mightily. And standing next to Robin Thicke to present the Quadruple Threat award, honestly, it looked like she could have walked away with at least half of that Moonman.

Shia LaBeouf You hear dude's dating Rihanna? Yeah. Hot off the presses. Now he officially has everything. We're just worried that, with those two together, evolution's gonna blow a gasket.

Nelly We couldn't get him to put down his drink, but it was nuthin' as St. Louis' favorite hip-hop son stood up tall and proud to welcome the ever wonderful Alicia Keys to the stage to perform.

Nicole Scherzinger Is that pronounced SHIRT-SINGER? SCARE-ZINGER? CHER'S-ANGER? Who cares. This Pussycat Doll brought a lot more to the show than a really intimidating last name. She performed during the pre-show 'Royale' and presented for us. So sweet.

Sarah Silverman The host of the 2007 MTV Movie Awards loves MTV sooooo much that she came to Vegas to welcome folks to our biggest show. She also lit into Britney and her kids, drawing the ire of many. She's so not afraid to be hated, and we love that!

Superbad's Seth Rogen and Bill Hader These Superbad actors were on hand throughout the night to encourage viewers to vote for their favorite Best New Artist nominee. Did we really believe that they wouldn't make a mockery of the whole damned thing?

Robin Thicke Suave and debonair, frankly he's got way too much class for us and our affair. We went to Vegas to party. He came in and performed a benefit concert, tossed compliments at Jennifer Hudson and made us swoon.

Yung Joc So, imagine you're as cool a hip-hop artist as they come and you're chillin' in the audience at the VMAs when Diddy says, "Hey, introduce this next bit with me." Young Joc did just that, filling in for Kid Rock (who got yanked from the proceedings after a dust-up with Tommy Lee) to introduce the finale performance with Sean John.