Lady Gaga Wins Top Honors at VMAs

Lady Gaga accepts the award for Video of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010, in Los Angeles.

/ AP Photo/Matt Sayles

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Updated 12:46 a.m. EST

Lady Gaga swept the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night, winning eight trophies, including the Video of the Year award for "Bad Romance."

Pictures: 2010 VMAs Red Carpet
Pictures: VMAs Show Highlights
Pictures: VMAs Backstage
Read More: Complete List of Winners

The singer picked up the biggest prize of the night wearing a dress and hat that appeared to be made of cuts of meat.

Cher - an over-the-top diva from a different era - presented Gaga her award and noted she had been raising eyebrows while Lady Gaga "was still Baby Gaga."

Gaga was teary-eyed when accepting her awards, and sang the title of her new album as she accepted the last Moonman: "Born This Way."

Her eight wins ties with A-ha's "Take on Me" in 1986 for the 2nd highest number of wins in one night. MTV officials had initially told backstage media Gaga's sweep was a record.

The show's most anticipated moment of the night came when Taylor Swift absolved Kanye West of his sins with a somber song.

The 20-year-old took to the stage - uninterrupted - and delivered a poignant ode about West at Sunday night's MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. Her performance began with a video montage of last year's debacle and then she went on to sing about last year's VMAs incident, when he hijacked her awards acceptance speech to announce that fellow nominee Beyonce should have won.

The song's lyrics included the line: "Who you are is not what you did." She also said: "32 is still growing up now ... you're still an innocent."

"Everyone of us has messed up, too," she sang. "I hope you remember today is never too late to be brand new."

West closed the show on Sunday night, beating himself up once again over his misbehavior

While he didn't address the trophy-gate incident directly onstage, he rapped and sang a song that mocked the boorish behavior that has upstaged his music.

"I always find something wrong; you've been putting up with my (expletive) for too long," he said, before launching into an unprintable chorus, which included the line: "Let's have a toast to scumbags."

Compared to the pathos of Swift and West, there were few other highlights, despite performances from Usher, Eminem and Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Linkin Park, and appearances by Nicki Minaj and the cast of MTV's own "Jersey Shore."

Eminem opened the awards with "Not Afraid" before being joined by Rihanna for their dark duet "Love the Way You Lie."

The show also featured Lindsay Lohan's first post-jail and rehab appearance.

A pre-taped portion of host Chelsea Handler's opening featured the comedienne getting spanked multiple times by show participants in a backstage hallway before running into the recently-freed Lohan, who also gave her a swat and demanded to know if the host had been drinking.

"Do you think anyone wants to work with a drunk?" she exclaimed. "Take it from me - they don't!"

Handler made her entrance by descending from the ceiling in a Gaga-like, over-the-top dress with a model house on her head. In her opening monologue, she noted that the last time a woman had hosted the VMAs, "Justin Bieber's mom had just given birth to her 401k plan" and encouraged the attendees to be on their worst behavior.

"I want to turn this mother out," she said. "Get your tongues ready because I want those tongues shoved in places they're not supposed to be."

Lady Gaga's eight awards included: Video of the Year, Best Collaboration, Best Female Video, Best Pop Video, Best Dance Video, Best Direction, Best Editing and Best Choreography.

Eminem picked up two awards for "Not Afraid" (Best Male Video and Best Hip-Hop Video), while awards also went to 30 Seconds to Mars (Best Rock Video), Justin Bieber (Best New Artist), Florence and the Machine (Art Direction), Jay Z and Alicia Keys (Cinematography), Muse (Special Effects) and The Black Keys (Breakthrough Video).

But overall, it was a relatively tame night - perhaps, given West's antics last year, the stars had learned a lesson.

[Krieger_1939]

Lady gag gag. You make me sick.

[Hamm33]

She good in her song mak me wanted dance and I love how she dress in differt art way. I don,t here janit jackson say any thing. I gust she mad. becoz lady gag gag getting better..she need sing some old classic 80s hit. But she need do x-mess song. mmmm-rely. from mr hamm

[displeased]

What kind of circus was this?

[tmittelstaed]

Eminem is the only one of the bunch who is a true artist, and they all know it, that's why they gave him an award. Lady Gaga is this generation's Madonna, and is a very poor substitute, and she isn't pretty, besides. Madonna could show her all with no makeup on at all and still look hot, but if Lady Gaga took off her makeup the you would have to put a bag over her head. And Madonna's "Like a Virgin" video where she had the bed on the stage and rolled around on it while performing the song was far more provocative and imaginative than Lady Gaga's meat-suit. I've yet to pop a boner watching anything that Lady Gaga has put out on video.

[pak31]

I agree with you that Lady Gaga is ugly but are you saying that in order to be a good singer you have to be sexually attractive? That is strange to me. Madonna is ugly too to me, not as much as Gaga but not a beauty. I totally agree that she is this generations Madonna and disagree with brianbwb2015 that just because Madonna was popular 20 years ago doesn't mean she didn't exist. Gaga is a ripoff of Madonna. Kids today don't know it probably but the media makes it seem like she's this original talented performer when in reality she's just copying off an old act. Also, I was a teen when Madonna performed her act to Like a Virgin and I thought she was an idiot.

[Scimajor]

What he did was inexcusable. The only reason for his "apology song" that he wrote for her was that he is taking a financial hit because of it.

[incog-nito]

C'mon. It's doubtful Swift was worse off from that incident. More likely she gained some more fans and benefited financially.

[lilbear925]

I hope Kanye West stays off the stage and keeps his big mouth shut...