Why did Lil Mama take the stage at the 2009 VMAs?

The CLOSING performance of the 2009 VMAs ended in controversy.

Jay-Z and Alicia Keys were performing Empire State of Mind when Lil Mama came on stage.

two

Why did Lil Mama take the stage?

One time, the three New Yorkers took the stage at the same time, but it wasn’t for a collaboration.

At the 2009 VMAs, Lil Mama unexpectedly jumped on stage while Alicia Keys and Jay-Z were performing.

The song they were playing at the time was the hit Empire State of Mind, which is an ode to New York City.

In a 2009 interview with MTV NewsLil Mama revealed that she took the stage because she was moved by the performance.

“I’m sitting in my seat two rows away from the stage and Jay-Z is walking through this tunnel and there’s all this adrenaline pumping,” Lil Mama said.

She went on to talk about how Jay-Z and Keys were singing the song’s intro about her New York City and it made her “emotional.”

“I felt like it was New York!” she said.

“I started to feel it [Jay-Z] and I started to feel myself and I just felt the energy and I got up and started walking towards the stage.”

Did Lil Mama apologize for going on stage?

Lil Mama apologized to the artists during the interview with MTV News.

She admitted she was “cheering them on” and didn’t mean to offend them.

“If in any way Jay-Z or Alicia Keys were offended, I want to apologize to both of them,” said the singer.

She went on to say that she would “love to have a one-on-one conversation” with her fellow musicians.

She said she felt like they had a bond while she was on stage.

“I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful,” Lil Mama said.

two

Has Lil Mama been forgiven by the artists?

Both Jay-Z and Keys commented on Lil Mama’s actions at the time.

Jay-Z called his action “out of line” in an interview with Angie Martinez.

“To interrupt that moment for us, I don’t think it was the right thing to do,” he said.

“There was a lot of planning that went into this performance. Stopping it was out of the question.”

In 2009, Keys was interviewed on the Today show about the incident.

“I’d rather not talk about it because the performance was so phenomenal that it doesn’t really matter anymore,” she told Hoda Kotb.

“We can appreciate her for being emotional and inspired. But we would have appreciated it if she had done it from her seat.”