Lady Gaga, Eminem & Girls' Generation Dominate YouTube Music Awards
Sunday night in Manhattan, YouTube entered the annual awards ceremony game with the inaugural YouTube Music Awards. The livestream was directed by Spike Jonze, hosted by Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts and far looser than any awards show in years.
The performance highlight of the night was Lady Gaga debuting her ARTPOP track "Dope" a few hours ahead of its official release. Gaga teared up during her performance, which makes sense when you pay closer attention to the lyrics and realize she's not just talking about addiction: She's addressing the former personal assistant and ex-best friend who is currently suing her. Watch the highly personal performance above.
Eminem won the night's top honor, the fan-voted YouTube Artist of the Year Award. But as he was backstage prepping his performance of "Rap God," he wasn't on hand to accept it. That left an out-of-breath Schwartzman aimlessly riffing for a minute, which you can watch here if you must.
Less awkward, more awesome was the indie-on-indie action of Greta Gerwig dancing through an intricate onstage set Frances Ha-style to Arcade Fire's performance of "Afterlife." Watch it here:
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