On Wednesday night, the delayed 2020 Billboard Music Awards took place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. It was fine, and the costuming was also just fine—that is, until the reggaetonera Ivy Queen (born Martha Ivelisse Pesante Rodríguez, if you know, you know) emerged onstage in a structured superhero fit in a style I’d like to label “robotic diamonds,” complete with exaggerated hips and shoulders. She looked incredible. Show-stopping good. Like, unnecessarily good. So good, in fact, that everyone else looked bad. For a show without an audience, she went well above and beyond.
Look, being la Reina del Reggaeton gives her a deserved and storied air of excellence—but outshining Nesi and Bad Bunny during a performance of “Yo Perreo Sola”? That’s something only she could do, and only in this fit. Bless.
Honorable mention goes to the women of En Vogue—Cindy Herron-Braggs, Terry Ellis and Rhona Bennett—for freeing my mind to the once-held opinion that athleisure (or just, like, comfy clothes in general) is wack fashion. I’ve seen the light; their light. Of course, the real power of their performance was not their clothing, but that they made it a point to highlight the state of emergency this country is currently in, and it couldn’t have been more resonant.
Clearly, the pop music veterans brought it this year while, like, Post Malone simply Post Malone’d and Julia Michaels couldn’t be bothered. Until next year, I guess!