The Greatest VMA Beauty Moments of All Time: From Kurt Cobain’s Blonde to Britney’s Abs

Amid a sea of red carpets that revolve around the glamour of a pitch-perfect blowout and a well-executed cat-eye, the MTV Video Music Awards have come to stand out as a beacon of quirk and nonconformity, offering celebrities an occasion to let their hair down—or tie it up, as the case may be—in a youthful celebration of music and pop culture.

Who could forget Madonna’s revolutionary 1984 performance of “Like a Virgin” at the network’s inaugural event, inspiring a generation of bedheads, brushed-up brows, gleaming décolletage, and irreverence? Since then, looks have ranged from familial grunge—Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love attended the 1993 ceremony with daughter Frances Bean in tow, each embracing their own shade of shoulder-grazing platinum and a pop of red—to romantic.

The mid-’90s found alternative songstress Fiona Apple embracing Botticelli-worthy waves tied back in a half-up style that amplified her ironically angelic features—ones that she employed later to not-so-sweetly call out the absurdity of pop idolatry while accepting her silver Moonman statuette. Meanwhile, Alanis Morissette’s middle part, slightly weighted lengths, and lightly lined eyes were the very picture of the decade’s rocker insouciance.

Not long afterward, an unofficial exposed midriff dress code was born, spurring everyone from the members of TLC, Jennifer Lopez, and the Spice Girls to Shakira, Miley Cyrus, and Gwen Stefani to flaunt their famously sculpted abs—Stefani pairing hers with an equally engaging look above the neck. She knotted up her cotton candy–blue bob and decked out her brow in light-catching bindis. It was a tactic repeated in 1999, when the red carpet saw a lot of Lil’ Kim, who supplemented her lack of clothing with an impressive wig of shiny lilac and an era-appropriate plum lip. In 2001 Britney Spears found all the balance necessary for her well-oiled legs and abs in a handful of glitter tattoos and one albino python.

In fact, the red carpet and onstage rebellions have been so iconoclastic that attendees continue to pay homage to the trailblazers that came before, with Cyrus seemingly re-creating Stefani’s aforementioned topknots, Katy Perry honoring Spears and Justin Timberlake’s all-denim moment—made newly modern by a cat-eye and full-face bangs—and One Direction expanding upon ’NSync’s many uses for hair gel.

Beyoncé used the iconic platform to announce her pregnancy, unbuttoning her sparkly jacket and jovially embracing her baby bump while her honey-coated, side-swept mane blew behind her. And though we all remember Kanye’s infamous onstage interruption, we should have been paying attention to his intricate buzz cut—after all, Taylor Swift is no worse for the wear. The singer later took to the red carpet in a Mary Katrantzou romper, which marked the beginning of an endless array of leggy displays.

With Rihanna and, yes, Britney (!) set to take the stage for this Sunday’s show, there are sure to be more memorable performances in the midst. Before our favorite pop stars set out to shock and delight, here, a look back at the best VMA beauty moments of all time.

 

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