VMA: Beyonce pregnant with Jay-Z, trumps MTV awards night

by Bill Palmer

Every MTV Video Music Awards ceremony comes with its own surprises, but this year’s VMA shocker is something with the television network couldn’t have formulated: Beyonce is pregnant, with husband Jay-Z the father, and the news broke as she hit the red carpet. In other words, whatever surprises MTV scripted for the night just became second-page news.

Whatever Jay-Z and his collaborator Kanye West have up their sleeve as far as performances, forget it. Whatever Lil Wayne might to do crash their party, put it on pause. Whichever food group Lady GaGa wears tonight, shelve it. Beyonce’s pregnancy is the story, with Perez Hilton breaking the story. There is of course the issue of just what this news has to do with music, beyond the fact that Beyonce recently released her new album 4. But then again, in 2011 there’s the question of just what MTV itself still has to do with music, or why a television network which no longer plays music videos is still putting a music video awards show.