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Swift leads winners but Cyrus rules at MTV Video Music Awards

By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES, Aug 30 (Reuters) - It was all about the shock factor on Sunday as the MTV Video Music Awards became the unofficial Miley Cyrus show, with the scantily-clad singer cursing her way through her hosting duties.

"I've literally done everything on the VMA stage and none of it showed I was qualified to host, but here we are," Cyrus, dressed in a plunging, sparkly rainbow jumpsuit, quipped as she opened the show.

Cyrus, 22, changed outfits numerous times throughout the show, each time coming out with less on, and starred in comedy sketches showing her cursing and smoking marijuana with actors such as Andy Samberg, musicians such as rapper Tyga, and her father, country musician Billy Ray Cyrus.

Viacom Inc-owned MTV's annual VMAs, which draws the network's youth audience coveted by advertisers, awards its Moonman statuettes to the year's top achievements in music videos, but has become better known for delivering irreverent and unexpected moments.

Minaj opened the show singing "The Night Is Still Young," dressed in an flamboyant red outfit with a feathered headdress, before being joined by Swift for her hit "Bad Blood," one of the top nominated videos of the night.

The two came together to perform after a Twitter altercation last month when Minaj said the MTV VMA nominations only rewarded videos by "slim girls," sparking a reaction from Swift. But the two showed no signs of "bad blood" on Sunday and ended their performance with a hug.

Minaj did call out Cyrus for criticizing her in a recent New York Times interview, to which Cyrus insinuated that the interview had been manipulated and congratulated the rapper.

Swift led the early winners on Sunday as "Blank Space" won best female video and best pop video, while Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson's summer hit "Uptown Funk!" was named best male video and Minaj's raunchy "Anaconda" won best hip hop video.

Ahead of the show, Fall Out Boy won best rock video for "Uma Thurman," and the fan-voted song of the summer award went to Australian boy band 5 Seconds of Summer's "She's Kinda Hot," which garnered more than 52 million votes.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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