Meat suited Lady Gaga dominates MTV Awards
Lady Gaga has swept the MTV Video Music Awards, picking up eight gongs including the coveted Video of the Year award. She accepted one award wearing what appeared to be meat suit.
Gaga’s hit single ‘Bad Romance’ won seven of her 13 nominations, including Video of the Year, best Pop Video, best Female Video, and Choreograhy and Editing.
The flamboyant singer’s signature style was also on show throughout the ceremony, as she accepted one award wearing an outfit that appeared to be made of pieces of meat.
It comes after Gaga recently angered animal rights activists by posing for a Japanese magazine in a ‘meat bikini’.
But the singer told US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres her outfit was symbolic and she meant “no disrespect to vegetarians”.
“It has many interpretations, but if we don’t stand up for what we believe in and if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones. And I am not a piece of meat,” she said.
“I never thought I’d be asking Cher to hold my meat purse,” she added.
The haul of eight VMA awards takes the singer to equal second place for the most VMAs won in a single night. A-ha’s Take on Me picked up eight awards in 1986, while Peter Gabriel won 10 awards in 1987.
During her acceptance speech for Best video, an emotional Gaga announced the name of her new album.
“I promised if I won this tonight I’d announce the name of my new record. It’s called Born this Way,” she said before singing part of the album’s single.
Her success at the awards comes after cultural critic, Camille Paglia, launched an attack on the singer in yesterday’s Sunday Times magazine.
“Gaga isn’t sexy at all – she’s like a gangly marionette or plasticised android. How could a figure so calculated and artificial, so clinical and strangely antiseptic, so stripped of genuine eroticism have become the icon of her generation?” Paglia wrote in ‘Lady Gaga and the death of sex’.
Paglia described the 24-year-old as ‘calculated and artificial’ and accused her of stealing Madonna’s style in her latest video, Alejandro.
“Gaga has borrowed so heavily from Madonna that it must be asked, at what point does homage become theft?”
Gaga and Beyonce’s single Telephone was also recognised with the Best Collaboration award.
Teen sensation, Justin Bieber, also triumphed at the Awards, where he was named Best New Artist.
“I come from a little town in Canada, and I never thought I’d be in this position. I just want to thank all my fans,” he said.