MTV Video Music Awards: Swift leads winners as West steals spotlight with announcement of presidential aspirations

PHOTO: Taylor won four awards at the MTV Video Music Awards including video of the year for her song Bad Blood. 

Most Moonmans but it was her reunion with rapper Kanye West on the MTV Video Music Awards stage that stole the show as West declared he will run for the US presidency in 2020.

Swift led the winners with four awards including best female video and best pop video for Blank Space.

Kanye West for president

Kanye West concludes a 10-minute acceptance speech announcing he intends to run for US president in 2020.

25-year-old Swift won video of the year, the night's top award, for the star-studded music video of her revenge song Bad Blood, which is reportedly about her feud with singer Katy Perry.

"I know there's been a lot of discussion about what this video means but I'm just happy that in 2015 we live in a world where boys can play princesses and girls can play soldiers," Swift said.

Perry did not attend this year's awards show.

MTV's annual VMAs hand out Moonman statuettes to the year's top achievements in music videos, but is better known for delivering irreverent and unexpected moments.

West, who famously stormed the stage and snatched the microphone from Swift in 2009 during her acceptance speech, was given the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award by Swift.

"Everyone in the world knew about our infamous encounter at the VMAs, but something you may not know is Kanye West's album College Dropout is the very first album I bought on iTunes," Swift said.

MTV Video Music Awards top winners

• Video of the year - Bad Blood, Taylor Swift featuring Kenrick Lamar
• Best male video - Uptown Funk, Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
• Best female video - Blank Space, Taylor Swift
• Artist to watch - Fetty Wap
• Best pop video - Blank Space, Taylor Swift
• Best hip-hop video - Anaconda, Nicki Minaj
• Best rock video - Uma Thurman, Fall Out Boy

She added, in a parody of West's 2009 speech, "to all the other winners tonight, I'm really happy for you and Imma let you finish, but Kanye West has one of the greatest careers of all time".

After a standing ovation, West rehashed the 2009 incident along with many other musings on the authenticity of artistry.

At one point he criticised awards shows and MTV for replaying the Swift incident over and over for "more ratings".

He ended his speech by declaring, "I have decided, in 2020, to run for president", quickly riling up social media.

Sunday's show was all about the shock factor as a scantily clad Miley Cyrus, 22, cursed her way through her hosting duties, flashed her bare breast and performed a new song about smoking marijuana.

Singer Justin Bieber made a teary return to the VMA stage after a two-year break.

He performed two new tracks and teared up at the end of the performance.

New Jersey rapper Fetty Wap was named artist to watch, Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson's summer hit Uptown Funk was named best male video and Minaj's Anaconda won best hip-hop video.

Funeral of a Reported Mafia Boss Featured ‘Godfather’ Music and a Gilded Carriage

People attend the funeral procession of alleged mafia member Vittorio Casamonica, outside Don Bosco church in Rome on Aug. 20, 2015.

There was even a low-flying helicopter dropping red rose petals on the crowd below

(ROME) — Romans aghast at a spiraling mafia probe found new reason for outrage Thursday over the Hollywood-style funeral of a purported local crime boss: It was replete with a gilded, horse-drawn carriage, flower petals tossed from a helicopter and the theme music from “The Godfather” playing outside the church.

Hundreds of tearful mourners paid their final respects to Vittorio Casamonica, 65, at the San Giovanni Bosco church on Rome’s outskirts. Police identified him as a leader of the Casamonica clan active in the southwest part of the capital but said he was “on the margins” of organized crime and hadn’t emerged as a suspect in recent mafia investigations.

“You conquered Rome, now you’ll conquer paradise,” read a banner affixed to the entrance of the church. “King of Rome,” read another, featuring Casamonica’s image, the Colosseum and St. Peter’s Basilica.

Mayor Ignazio Marino called Rome’s prefect demanding to know how such a scene could have taken place and tweeted that it was “intolerable that funerals are used by the living to send mafia messages.”

The parish priest, the Rev. Giancarlo Manieri, said he had no control over what happened outside the church and that inside, the funeral was celebrated normally, the ANSA news agency reported.

Lawmakers expressed outrage at the scene, which played out on TV newscasts all afternoon and evening: Six black horses pulling an antique, black-and-gold carriage to a stop in front of the church as a band played the soulful tunes of “The Godfather,” and mourners tossing bouquets of flowers as the casket was carried into the church.

At a certain point, a low-flying helicopter dropped red rose petals on the crowd below.

Dr. Dre’s New Album Was Streamed in its First Week On Apple Music

Rapper Dr. Dre.

Can the tech giant’s new service compete with others on the market?

Dr. Dre’s new album, “Compton: A Soundtrack,” was streamed 25 million times during its first week out on Apple Music and was downloaded nearly half a million times on iTunes, the New York Times reports. The album was heavily promoted through Apple Music and iTunes and is exclusively available through those two media.

These numbers weren’t enough to get the album to the No. 1 spot in the U.S., where it received 11 million streams. This seems low compared to other hits this year, like Drake’s “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late,” which was streamed 48 million times in just one week. While 11 million isn’t bad, “it’s not a spectacular number if you take in the number of Apple users that exist worldwide,” Russ Crupnick, analyst at Music Watch, told the Times.

Other successful albums from this year greatly benefitted from the popularity of Spotify, which has about 75 million users. Apple Music, since being released on June 30, has had 11 million people sign up for its 90-day free trial.

Reactions to Apple Music have been mixed, and its impact on the music charts insignificant. There are already “really established services out there, like Pandora, Spotify, and Deezer, that people really like. It’s hard to penetrate the market as the second, third, fourth brand in, even if that brand is Apple,” Crupnick said.

We can expect to spot more marketing for Apple’s new service this month as they try to put the pressure on other music streaming services in their search for new subscribers.

Apple Music Has Snagged 11 Million Trial Users

Apple Music Snagged 11 Million Trial Users

But it's not yet clear whether they'll stick around

Apple Music is off to a fast start.

The new music streaming service from the world’s most valuable company has amassed 11 million trial subscribers so far, Apple executive Eddy Cue told USA Today. Of that 11 million, 2 million subscriptions are for the family plan, which lets 6 users set up Apple Music accounts for $14.99 per month.

The figures aren’t yet indicative of Apple Music’s long-term success because the service launched with a three-month free trial for all users. Come October, users will have to pay $9.99 per month to continue streaming songs (or $14.99 per month for the family plan). If Apple Music manages to maintain its user base, it will already have about half the number of paying subscribers of Spotify, which has 20 million. Spotify also has 55 million users on an ad-supported free tier.

Apple Music’s success wouldn’t necessarily come at the expense of Spotify or other streaming services, though. Only about 41 million people globally currently pay for a music subscription service. With digital download sales on a steep decline, Apple may be able to push music fans who’ve never streamed before into using Apple Music.