M OWNS THE STAGE AT THE FIRST VMA'S

by Kyle Anderson

The 2010 MTV Video Music Awards are only a few weeks away. The biggest party of the year features nominated clips by Lady Gaga, Eminem, Jay-Z, Ke$ha and Katy Perry and will feature performances by Kanye West, Justin Bieber, Drake, B.o.B and Florence and the Machine (with many more to be announced). In order to properly prepare yourself for what's to come, every day the MTV Newsroom Blog will deliver a classic moment in the history of the MTV Video Music Awards. Today's installment: Madonna sets the first VMAs on fire.

Thank You and a HUGE shout-out to our member ziggy for the photo.

On September 14, 1984, the worlds of music, television and awards shows changed forever when hosts Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler kicked off the very first MTV Video Music Awards. Obviously, the first VMAs looks pretty odd from this vantage point, but the twist is they actually seemed pretty odd back when they actually happened. Midler was certainly a bizarre choice to co-host, and the list of winners that year included some early MTV visionaries (David Bowie, the Cars, Cyndi Lauper) but also some unusual choices (ZZ Top and Herbie Hancock, who took home a total of five Moonmen that night).

But the first VMAs will be best remembered as the forum that allowed Madonna to don a wedding dress and writhe around on stage during "Like a Virgin." It was sexy, shocking and memorable, and it successfully set the tone for future VMA performances.

The 27th annual MTV Video Music Awards will be broadcast live from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on September 12 at 9 p.m. ET. Fans can go to VMA.MTV.com (or text VMA to 97979 for Verizon subscribers) to vote for the winners from now through September 12.

Source: http://newsroom.mtv.com/2010/08/24/madonna-like-a-virgin-vmas/