But the night wasn't all smooth sailing for the Cuban-American ex-member of Fifth Harmony. Her first appearance on the telecast came after Tiffany Haddish mangled the singer's name — a reminder of Cabello's relative newcomer status. The comedian also alluded to Cabello's less-than-amicable split from her former group.
Cabello — who spent the past few days with her family in Miami proselytizing for the many virtues of croquetas on Instagram — fared much better than Drake, whose Magic City-filmed video for "God's Plan" was snubbed in all five categories for which it was nominated, including Best Video With a Message, Best Hip-Hop, and Video of the Year. Drake didn't even bother to show up, which usually assures getting shut out at MTV's fan-driven awards show.
The main draw of the night — besides appearances by chart-toppers such as Cardi B, Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, and Post Malone — was Jennifer Lopez's performance
DJ Khaled, who during most of the telecast sat in the audience with his wife and overexposed 1-year-old son
Surprisingly, there was no mention of the late XXXTentacion despite ample airtime given to many of his young peers from the hip-hop world. Ditto for Florida boy Tom Petty, but maybe it was for the best. Travis Scott's tribute to Aretha Franklin — thrown in at the end of his performance and immediately before touting his number one album Astroworld — fell flat. Later, Madonna launched into an extended monologue that was purportedly a tribute to the Queen of Soul but instead was about herself. It recounted how she sang "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" at an audition when she was a struggling artist. Avicii earned a brief mention from Rita Ora, with whom the late DJ won a posthumous award for Best Dance Video for their track “Lonely Together.”
It was a great night for Miami, a terrible night for memorials, and a characteristically oddball night for music and fashion, as exemplified by the night's closing performance: Post Malone singing a duet with Aerosmith on "Dream On" and "Toys in the Attic" after rapping "Rockstar" in a white suit with giant pink, yellow, and blue smiley faces on it. Clearly, nothing is sacred at the VMAs, and for