Last night’s Billboard Music Awards — in which Beyoncé was given the prestigious, totally not made-up Artist of the Millennium award — proved itself to be must-see viewing. There were little things, like Justin Bieber kissing his ladyfriend Selena Gomez in public despite the fact that she may now, in order to live a peaceful Belieber-assassination-attempt-free life, need to move to a small Central American country, gain 30 pounds, and grow a moustache; there were bigger things, like Britney Spears popping up for sway-heavy performances with both Rihanna and Nicki Minaj. And then there was Beyoncé’s rendition of “Run the World (Girls)â€: Say what you will about both the track itself and its new video, but this performance was hard to deny. Following a tribute portion featuring testimonials from her father Matthew Knowles (doing his best not to seem mad about getting fired as her manager), Barbra Streisand (doing her best not to seem like she was reading from a cue card), and a bunch of other notable names, Bey went into the multifaceted routine, building up from a solo green-screen portion into a whole epic fleet of backup dancers gyrating on every available stage space, and taking some time in between to frighten Matthew Morrison. (Bonus points for the adorable awards speech, given while Beyoncé was still catching her breath, where she called Jay-Z her best friend.) Anyway: Rihanna’s “I gotta compete with that?†face during the standing ovation sums things up nicely.
