The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, honoring the best music videos from the previous year between June 2008 to June 2009, were presented on September 13, 2009, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and televised by MTV. The ceremony was hosted by Russell Brand for the 2nd consecutive year. Beyoncé, Green Day, and Lady Gaga were tied for the most-awarded acts of the night, winning three awards each. Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" won the award for Video of the Year, while Beyoncé and Lady Gaga were both tied for the largest number of nominations with nine, followed by Britney Spears with seven. In the aftermath of his June 2009 death, the show featured various tributes to Michael Jackson, including an opening act featuring a medley of Jackson's biggest hits and a special appearance by Janet Jackson to perform her duet "Scream", and the premiere of a trailer for the posthumous documentary film Michael Jackson's This Is It. The ceremony was marred by an incident in which Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance of the award for Best Female Video, in order to proclaim that despite her victory, Beyoncé still had "one of the best videos of all time", referring to the aforementioned "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". When Beyoncé was eventually awarded Video of the Year, she acknowledged the moment when she had won her first VMA as part of Destiny's Child, and invited Swift back onstage to finish her acceptance speech. The incident was highly publicized, with Rolling Stone naming it the "wildest" moment in the history of the VMAs in 2013. The broadcast was seen by a total of 9 million viewers, a 17% increase over 2008, making it the most-watched VMAs since 2004.

Performances

House band performances

Rapper Wale and go-go band UCB served as the house band for the show, performing right before, during, and right after commercial breaks. Throughout the show they also had various special guests and performed the following songs:

Awards

Winners are in bold text.

Video of the Year

Beyoncé – "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"

Best Male Video

T.I. (featuring Rihanna) – "Live Your Life"

Best Female Video

Taylor Swift – "You Belong with Me"

Best New Artist

Lady Gaga – "Poker Face"

Best Pop Video

Britney Spears – "Womanizer"

Best Rock Video

Green Day – "21 Guns"

Best Hip-Hop Video

Eminem – "We Made You"

Breakthrough Video

Matt and Kim – "Lessons Learned"

Best Direction

Green Day – "21 Guns" (Director: Marc Webb)

Best Choreography

Beyoncé – "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" (Choreographers: Frank Gatson Jr. and JaQuel Knight)

Best Special Effects

Lady Gaga – "Paparazzi" (Special Effects: Chimney Pot)

Best Art Direction

Lady Gaga – "Paparazzi" (Art Director: Jason Hamilton)

Best Editing

Beyoncé – "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" (Editor: Jarrett Fijal)

Best Cinematography

Green Day – "21 Guns" (Director of Photography: Jonathan Sela)

Best Video (That Should Have Won a Moonman)

Beastie Boys – "Sabotage"

Best Performance in a Pepsi Rock Band Video

Nerds in Disguise – "My Own Worst Enemy"

Best Breakout Artist Awards

Eight local MTV VMA Best Breakout Artist Awards were awarded. The table below lists the number of bands considered in each city, the three finalist nominees selected by MTV for each VMA, and the winner in bold. The winners were featured on MTV on local cable during the live VMAs and received featured coverage on MTV and MTV2 (or MTV Tr3́s in the case of the LA contest).

Appearances

Pre-show

Main show

Kanye West–Taylor Swift incident

As Taylor Swift was giving her Best Female Video acceptance speech for "You Belong with Me", Kanye West went on stage, took the microphone from her, and said: "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!", referring to the music video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". As the live audience booed, West handed the microphone back to Swift, shrugged his shoulders, and walked off stage. West was subsequently removed from the show. Later in the show, Beyoncé won Video of the Year for "Single Ladies" and called Swift back onstage to let her finish her speech. Various celebrities and industry figures, as well as prominent political figures including then United States President Barack Obama, former President Jimmy Carter, and future President Donald Trump condemned West for his verbal outburst at Swift. West apologized on his blog and during an appearance on The Jay Leno Show. Emil Wilbekin, managing editor of Essence magazine, argued that West went too far with his actions, compared to the past: "I think that it was not Kanye's place to speak for Beyoncé or to ruin Taylor Swift's moment... It's OK for Kanye to rattle off about himself, but I think he crossed the line when he decided to speak for other people." Los Angeles Times contributor Ann Powers opined that "from one vantage point, it was a case of chivalry gone horribly wrong" as West meant to "stand up for" Beyoncé. Powers was cynical about the onstage embrace Beyoncé and Swift shared, calling it "staged" and stating that it added "another layer of meaning to an already complicated moment. Now this controversy was about women sticking up for each other, too." In 2013, Rolling Stone named the incident the wildest moment in VMA history. The outburst resulted in a meme consisting of images of West being superimposed onto other images with text in the style of his interruption ("X is one of the greatest Y of all time", or variants thereon, in some cases preceded by "I'm really happy for you" and/or "I'mma let you finish")." West later referenced the incident in his 2016 single "Famous", controversially claiming that he made Swift famous through it.