2013 MTV VMAs: Lady Gaga opens show with ‘Applause,’ a shell bikini, and vintage wig

When you have an artist like Lady Gaga opening your awards show, there is really one thing that you can assume: It is probably going to be at least somewhat insane. MTV booked her for the Video Music Awards this year with this very intention in mind, and it was then up to her to see if she was going to top some of her other crazy performances over the years, including one as her alter ego Jo Calderone.

This time around, the performance at the center of the spectacle was “Applause,” Gaga’s single from her upcoming album “ARTPOP.” It is a song that has already drawn strong opinions from across the music community, and this was her first-ever opportunity to take on the song live.

Now, the first thing that we have to say is that we really appreciated the part of the song that Gaga performed with the blond wig, which really was a nice homage to her “The Fame” days and the excellence of that album. Rather than going for crazy though most of this performance, or anything that was necessarily symbolic, this was actually more about Gaga’s musical journey over the course of the past few years. She also sported a blonde wig that was similar to her “Monster Ball Tour” get-up, and eventually morphed into a similar shell bikini outfit that she first donned during the “Applause” music video released earlier this month.

Overall, what was your take on how Gaga opened the show? If you want to see some more red-carpet highlights from the show along with the list of winners, just take a look at our tag page here. We’ll have a video here when available.

Photo: MTV