Missy Elliot has always been an obvious science fiction nerd, always showing her love for the genre in most of her videos in some way over the years. But on Monday, during the MTV Video Music Awards, she took it to the next level: We just saw the first UFO alien abduction live on stage!
Performing on the same night she received her MTV Video Vanguard Award, the artist ran through some of her biggest hits. First, Missy started with a crew of dancers, all decked out to look like retro sci-fi spacefaring crew members.
Then she struck what looked like a very Mad Max post-apocalyptic look, and it totally worked.
There was also a moment where a grown-up Alyson Stoner (from Missy’s old ‘Work It’ video) appeared on stage and completely wrecked the Internet with her amazing performance — she actually got even better!
But Missy’s true love of sci-fi really came through during the end where she appeared as a scarecrow in a corn field as a massive UFO (very much in the tradition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind) descended upon the theater and quickly beamed up a member of the audience.
It was one of the single best moments of live stagecraft we’ve ever seen.
Afterward, Missy and her army of dancers ended things on what looked like the surface of Mars, or maybe the lava planet Mustafar from Star Wars.
All this happened just after the annual Afropunk festival in Brooklyn, which The New York Times noted had a distinct futuristic aesthetic.
But despite all the amazing acts that performed at the event, Missy proved at last night’s VMA’s that she will always be the queen of sci-fi-meets-music. You can watch the full performance below.
Cover image via MTV/YouTube
