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The MTV Video Music Awards broke all kinds of records last night, garnering their largest audience ever last night with 12.4 million viewers.

Not only was it the highest watched VMAs, but also the most viewed single telecast in MTV’s history.

The viewership jumped 9 percent from last year and became the most-watched non-sports cable telecast of the year.

It was a big night for the stars, as well.  Beyonce announced her pregnancy, Lil Wayne dropped his newest album and Jo Calderone (Lady Gaga’s alter ego) made his first public appearance.

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Joining the all-star lineup at tonight’s MTV Video Music Awards will be Kanye West and Jay Z’s new duo, The Throne.

The rappers, who just released the number one album “Watch The Throne,” will join Lady Gaga, Adele, Lil Wayne and many more at the awards.

Their performance is supposed to be a surprise, so few know when they will actually go on.  Billboard.com speculates that they may join Beyonce’s performance, as one of their songs features her on the chorus.

Both Jay Z and Kanye performed at past VMAs.  Kanye debuted a track from his most recent album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” and Jay collaborated with Alicia Keys on “Empire State of Mind.”

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Rap powerhouse Lil Wayne will drop his latest album, Tha Carter IV at midnight on Monday, August 29th, after the MTV Video Music Awards.

Wayne, who is performing at the VMAs will make the album available digitally on iTunes, Amazon, and other legal MP3 download sites.  The CD will be in stores on Monday morning.

“I am extremely excited to be the first artist to utilize such an amazing idea. I hope that I can open the door for others,” Lil Wayne said in a press statement, according to MTV news.

Sunday night will be big for Wayne as he is nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video and Best Collaboration at the VMAs, and will perform at the award show, all before releasing his album.

“The MTV Video Music Awards are one of the most watched and respected shows in the industry,” Ronald “Slim” Williams, CEO of Cash Money Records, said in a statement, reports MTV news. “Wayne is one of the most respected and prolific artists in the industry. By pairing the release of Tha Carter IV with the VMAs, it will certainly add to the overall anticipation and excitement for fans everywhere for what will surely be an unforgettable evening.”

The new album features artists such as Drake, T-Pain, Rick Ross, Busta Rhymes and many more.

Lil Wayne is currently overcoming a head injury he got while skateboarding in St. Louis, but appeared in high spirits on Twitter when he said:

“The Lou was good but I busted my … head at the sk8park! 9stitches! Gnarly gash over my left eye! Luv the people.”

His performance is sure to be energetic as usual, despite the injury.

The VMAs will air on MTV at 9 p.m. ET/PT on August 28th.  The pre-show, hosted by Selena Gomez, begins at 8.

On August 28 Selena Gomez (“Wizards of Waverly Place”) will host the pre-show for the MTV Video Music Awards.

Gomez will be joined by other MTV personalities while interviewing celebrities on the black carpet outside of Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

“When the Sun Goes Down” is Gomez’s current album with the band Scene. Although the album is No. 17 on the US pop charts, the band will not be performing at the awards show.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Beyonce was the big winner at last night’s MTV Video Music Awards, taking home the big prize of Video of the Year for “Single Ladies”. It seemed to be lady’s night at MTV because Lady Gaga took home the honors for “Best New Artist” while Britney Spears took “Best Pop Video”. Green Day beat out Kings of Leon and Fall Out Boy for Best Rock Video, but the awards were ironically a very insignificant part of last night’s show.

Just in case you have been in a coma for the past 24 hours, the first thing you need to know about last night’s awards is that Kanye West should no longer be allowed on the premises. By Blast calculations, this is the third year that Kanye has publicly displayed his outrage at the MTV selection for an award. This year’s victim was America’s country sweetheart Taylor Swift, who won the first award of the night “Best Female Video.” In outrage that Beyonce didn’t win for “one of the best videos of all time” Kanye rushed the stage, took Taylor’s microphone during her acceptance speech, and proclaimed Beyonce should have been the winner leaving Miss Swift in horrified silence. Twitter explosions and blog frenzies after report that Swift was to be seen sobbing backstage after the debacle.

Outside of the dramatics, the VMAs this year contained a lot of W-t-fness, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Every cut to Lady Gaga gave viewers a peak at outrageous outfit after outrageous outfit. Apparently being able to see was not a major concern when making fashion decisions. Equally as twisted was her live performance. Gaga performed her latest mega hit “Paparazzi” on the VMA stage. She lived up to her reputation of a fantastic live performance, but the crowd and viewers alike were a little disturbed by Gaga’s literal perception of the paparazzi killing her when she poured blood over her and then pseudo hung herself from the VMA ceiling.

R&B badass Pink also used a harness for her VMA performance, which may have been the most impressive of the night. Pink performed the entire sang, hanging about 50 feet off the ground, flipping around and somersaulting with her trapeze partner. The most amazing part of the stunt was that she was continuing to sing live “" no lip syncing “" as she continuously flipped head over heels.

In fact there wasn’t a bad musical performance the entire night. Taylor Swift was impressive with her take over of the 42nd street subway station and subsequent Times Square performance. Beyonce amazed audiences not only with her fancy leg work but the fact that she didn’t have a wardrobe malfunction visa Janet Jackson at the Superbowl. Jay-Z and Alicia Keys topped off the night with their new duet, but it was the opening of the show that stole most of the attention.

This year’s VMAs kicked off with a Janet Jackson led tribute to her late brother, King of Pop, Michael Jackson. It was touching and very fitting that this year’s awards were dedicated to a man who took music videos to a new height. Dancers recreated moves from the iconic “Thriller” before Janet arose on stage and re-created the moves from “Scream” while Michael’s mirroring performance played on the screen behind. Intermittently throughout the show, props were given to Michael as well as a full trailer of “This Is It”, the film compiled of all the rehearsal footage before his death, which will appear in theatres nationwide on October 28.

Performances really took precedence at the awards. Only five trophies were given out during the actual aired show. Equally as insignificant was host Russell Brand. While admittedly hilarious in his own right, British stand-up comic Brand fell flat as returning host of the awards. While MTV was probably banking on Brand’s gained notoriety over the past year, his brash humor didn’t translate well to the stage. It seemed that producers spent more time cutting to commercial after Brand’s crude punchlines than letting him speak, and that’s when he was brought on stage to introduce anyone at all. Though Brand has conquered television hosting, movies and even the New York Time’s bestseller’s list with his autobiography “My Booky Wook”, hosting just may not be his thing.

Overall, the show was surprisingly entertaining, especially considering the disappointing past couple of years. There wasn’t a boring moment during the entire two and a half hour runtime. Last night’s show was so well put together that it might have actually succeeded in distracting people from the fact that the ceremony is completely irrelevant. Seriously, when was the last time MTV even played a video?

Should we be surprised?

Kanye pulled another stunt at MTV’s Video Music Awards last night – effectively embarrassing Taylor Swift, Beyonce and himself.

When a stunned 19-year-old Taylor took the stage to accept the award for Best Female Music Video, she only managed to get a few words of thanks and surprise out before Kanye took the mic from her hands. “Taylor, I’m really happy for you, and I’m gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time,” he said. And then he was gone.

Poor Taylor was left in stunned silence on stage and cameras turned to a clearly embarrassed Beyonce, who later won Video of the Year. During her acceptance speech, she invited Taylor on stage to give her another shot at her moment. A very nice gesture, but I doubt Taylor feels much better about the evening.

The MTV Video Music Awards will be returning to their home at Radio City Music Hall this September. Russell Brand will be hosting for the second year in a row, introducing nominees like Britney Spears (who won Video of the Year last year), Kanye West, and Kings of Leon. Amongst the new faces this year will be rising starlet Anjulie who has been nominated for Breakthrough Video for her debut single “Boom”. Anjulie talked about the nomination, getting on MTV and how randy Russell Brand is in a recent phone interview with Blast.

“I was doing a morning television show in Toronto, when the Adria [Petty] the director called me and said we were nominated” Anjulie recalled about finding out she was nominated, “I told my manager and he said, “ËœThere’s no way’. So we checked online and there it was.”

“Boom”, which hit #1 on the Billboard dance chart, is the first single from Anjulie’s full length album, “Anjulie”, which hit stores August 4. Anjulie says the concept for the video developed naturally between her and Petty.

“We met together and just brought in our collective ideas. We picked the same magazines, the same art styles. We are very similar creatively I guess” said Anjulie.

The video begins with Anjulie walking a tight-rope before it snaps, sending Anjulie crawling through a Salvador Dali meets Alice in Wonderland type universe. Each shot captures a vibrant and animated display, from the little vs huge room Anjulie tumbles into from the tight rope to the “rolling ocean” from which she sends a message in a bottle. “Boom” showcases Petty and Anjulie’s technique for artistic flare. Petty also directed Anjulie’s second video that will premiere soon.

Anjulie’s relationship with MTV started long before the nomination was announced. The Hills producer John Carr discovered Anjulie before she had finished recording the album. He put one of her songs on the hit reality show and soon thousands were asking how to get a hold of Anjulie songs.

“(Carr) put it on the show and we started getting tons of requests online and on MTV.com. People messaged me on my Myspace asking me how they could hear the songs and get them. Then they put me on the Freshman Five and started playing the video. It just went from there” Anjulie said.

The song also appeared in an episode of The City and the video has been put into regular rotation on both MTV and VH1. Anjulie is sharing real-estate in the Breakthrough Video category with indie heavyweights Death Cab for Cutie and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. When asked if she would be preparing an acceptance speech just in case of a win, Anjulie said she isn’t expecting anything.

“I don’t think anyone knows about me, as far as the voting public is concerned. I am probably the lowest profile artist on there. So I am really not expecting to win – I won’t be writing an acceptance speech” she said.

Anjulie will definitely be attending the ceremony in early September though and is hoping for a chance to meet no-holds-barred host and comedian Russell Brand.

“You know who I’m excited to meet? Russell Brand. I think he’s really hot” Anjulie confessed. “I have seen all his stand-up. I am like a Youtube stalker of him – he’s hilarious.”

The awards will air on Sunday, September 13 at 9 p.m. on MTV. Be sure to check them out and look for the new Breakthrough Artist, Anjulie.