Nicki Minaj, left, and Taylor Swift at the 2015 VMAs. (Matt Sayles/Invision/AP; Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
(This is the third installment in a series that looks at the most fascinating, intriguing — or in some cases, disturbing — celebrity news of the week.)
Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj are both in feuds with celebrities. They also both won VMA trophies on Sunday night and addressed the feuds in their speeches. Yet they both handled the disagreements very differently.
Minaj, as everyone knows, was very vocal about the fact that Cyrus criticized her in the New York Times the other week. While accepting her trophy for best hip-hop video, Minaj thanked her fans and then threw to Cyrus, who was hosting: “And now back to this b— that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press,” Minaj said. “Miley, what’s good?” A startled Cyrus tried to blame the New York Times for “manipulating” the interview (even though her quotes were in a Q&A transcript) while cameras cut back to Minaj, who mouthed ““Don’t play with me, b—.”
[Nicki Minaj, Miley Cyrus share harsh words on VMA stage — what exactly did they say?]
There’s nothing the Internet loves more than a good public celebrity feud, and Twitter immediately pounced on a “what’s good?” meme. But frankly, it was also probably the only part of the VMAs that people will remember. (Okay, maybe a few will recall Kanye West announced he’s running for president.) Though MTV tried really hard to create controversial moments by giving West the Video Vanguard Award and making Cyrus the host, memorable moments only happen at award shows when they’re off-the-cuff.
More importantly, when do celebrity feuds actually ever happen in public? It’s pretty rare in the days of passive-aggressive tweets to actually see two stars get everything out in the open — to the delight of viewers. By calling out Cyrus, Minaj instantly cemented her place in award show history.
Interestingly, Minaj’s moment only served to underscore how disappointing it was when Swift — who had her own misunderstanding with Minaj earlier this summer — stood up to make her speech. Swift is famously frenemies with pop star Katy Perry, widely reported to be the target of Swift’s “Bad Blood” song. The accompany music video featured Swift and an army of celebrities marching to vanquish an unknown enemy. While Swift has long written songs about people who have wronged her, from ex-boyfriends to bloggers, she’s famously never named names. And now, at the peak of her power, she continues to be vague.
“I know there has been a lot of discussion about this video and what it means,” Swift said as she accepted her trophy for the track, which won Video of the Year. Then she segued into social issues: “But I’m just happy that in 2015, we live in a world where boys can play princesses and girls can play soldiers.”
So, again, Swift teases the topic, but stopped short of saying anything. Even though she’s definitely well-aware that in addition to the discussion about the video being a symbol of Swift’s friend-collecting, it’s generated a lot of talk about its target, unlike Minaj, she stops short of the details. If we’re in the days when celebrities call out their frenemies, Swift’s sly hints and coded messages (at one time a fun game) look increasingly outdated — and even frustrating to fans who feel like they know her, but realize they don’t, really.
Clearly, we wouldn’t expect her to call out Perry on stage. But the way she coyly hinted at the video’s true meaning, surrounded on stage by her squad of supermodel best friends, looked smug, like she knows she’s far above it all. Minaj, by sharing her actual feelings, looked like a real person whose feelings are hurt. No one knows the power of celebrity relatability more than Swift, and in this case, it might not have hurt to get a little more specific.
Read more:
— Watch Nicki Minaj, Taylor Swift make up on stage: Bring on the conspiracy theories
— Taylor Swift apologizes and Nicki Minaj accepts, but the real winner is MTV
— Nicki Minaj is annoyed at MTV and the media, not Taylor Swift. Here’s why.
