Lorde Danced Her Way Into Our Hearts at the VMAs
You never know what’s going to happen at the MTV Video Music Awards. Well, you do always know that it’s going to be several different levels of odd, and that the performances will be something to talk about. But whether or not there’ll be much dancing to speak of is always up in the air. And while Teyana Taylor, Guapo, Jae Blaze and Derek “Bentley” Watkins, the group behind Kanye West’s “Fade,” took the Best Choreography award (and sure, we’re just a little bummed that Sia’s Ryan Heffington–choreographed “The Greatest” didn’t get it), the dance moment that has us talking was completely unexpected.
Pop musician Lorde was set to perform her song “Homemade Dynamite” live on the awards, and while she did perform, she didn’t actually sing. She just popped in a cassette tape, let her song play and danced for the next three and a half minutes, sometimes assisted by a small cadre of backup dancers. And it was awesome.
Does she look like a professional dancer? No. Is she supposed to? Absolutely not. And we loved it—even more when we found out that she didn’t sing because she was getting over the flu. The show has to go on somehow, and that’s a sentiment to which all dancers can relate. Mad props.
