Dear Gossips,

What would the MTV Video Music Awards be without Madonna? It was at the very first MTV VMAs that she performed “Life A Virgin” and writhed onstage in a wedding dress. Madonna would continue to deliver spectacle after spectacle at the VMAs until a successor arrived 15 years later in the form of Britney Spears who would carry on the tradition with her own iconic VMA history.

It was fitting then that it was Britney who was trending last night even before the VMAs began and it’s not because she was there. Britney and Elton John’s new song “Hold Me Closer” reached #1 on iTunes in the US and several other countries on Friday. And then, on Sunday of all days, she upstaged the VMAs when she posted on YouTube a 20-plus minute audio recording detailing in her words how she was controlled, silenced, and abused during the conservatorship and calling out family members, including her father, mother, and sister for their betrayals over the years. The post has since been deleted but if you missed it, you can stilllisten here.

Last year on VMA night Britneyannounced her engagement.

This year, once again, she found a way to own the VMAs.

Coincidence or conspiracy? How could it possibly be a coincidence? Of all the days she could have chosen to release this audio, this is the one she chose?

And there were references to Britney throughout with Nicki Minaj thanking her during her Video Vanguard acceptance speech and this moment during Bad Bunny’s performance:

Justin’s face though, LOL forever. Speaking of that, though…this is what Harry Styles wore for his show last night at Madison Square Garden:

Harry Lambert is Harry Styles’s stylist. Britney is currently his Twitter profile photo. That can’t be a coincidence either.

Britney dominated the VMAs before Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Netflix. It was when people still watched the same thing on television at the same time. An entire generation was raised on the pop culture moments she created on VMA night. So the fact that she decided to speak last night of all nights? She knows her power over the VMAs, there’s no doubt about it.

Yours in gossip,

1zplay