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Wild child steals MTV awards

It may not be a good thing for her, but Miley Cyrus had the most memorable moment at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Miley Cyrus
This image released by MTV shows Miley Cyrus performing at the MTV Video Music Awards at Barclays Center on Sunday in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

NEW YORK — It may not be a good thing for her, but Miley Cyrus had the most memorable moment at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The provocative pop singer was the hot topic at Sunday night’s show: Cyrus eclipsed Lady Gaga’s opening performance of her new single, Katy Perry’s closing rendition of her latest hit and Kanye West’s artsy set.

The 20-year-old even grabbed more attention than Justin Timberlake’s performance with his ’N Sync band mates.

Cyrus twerked and gyrated, stripped and swayed. She sang, too.

She had a helper at the VMAs: Robin Thicke.

After performing her edgy hit, We Can’t Stop, she stripped off her outfit to reveal a nude bikini.

She sang the first verse of Thicke’s Blurred Lines, then grinded on the R&B singer and made suggestive moves with a foam hand.

The wild child also slapped a girl’s butt onstage.

It was an eye-popping performance, much like the party she’s having in her music video for We Can’t Stop, one of the most popular on YouTube.

Within hours, the Buzzfeed site was posting the “15 Weirdest and Craziest Moments” from Cyrus’ performance, which was aired live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“Amazing. I thought it was awesome,” fellow former child star Selena Gomez said backstage of Cyrus’ performance.

“I love Robin Thicke, too, so I like that they collab’d.”

Artist to watch winner Austin Mahone also seemed to enjoy the performance: “I thought it was pretty creative. I thought it was pretty cool.”

Brooke Shields, who played Cyrus’ mom in a few episodes of Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel, took note of that on the Today show Monday: “I was Hannah Montana’s mom! Where did I go wrong?”

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski said the performance was “disgusting and embarrassing,” and that people involved should be ashamed.

Twitter said early Monday that Cyrus was mentioned 4.5 million times on the social network site, ahead of Timberlake’s 2.9 million mentions. Cyrus and Thicke’s performance led in tweets per minute peaks with 306,100.

Though they were attention grabbers and nominated for four moonmen each, Thicke and Cyrus walked away empty-handed Sunday night.

Timberlake earned three awards, including video of the year and best male video for Mirrors.

Days ahead of the VMAs, his rumoured reunion with ’N Sync dominated headlines, and he and his former band mates delivered at the awards show.

As Timberlake performed a medley of his solo hits, JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick emerged from the bottom of the stage in suits to sing some lines from their hits Girlfriend and Bye, Bye, Bye.

Gomez, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and possibly the entire venue were giddy as the boy band danced like they did a decade ago.

Even rappers Wiz Khalifa and Juicy J admitted on the red carpet they were excited to see ’N Sync hit the stage.

“Half of the moonmen I’ve ever won, I won with those four guys right there,” Timberlake said of his band mates when he accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award.

“So above all else, I’m going to share this — we can keep it my house — but I’m going to share this award with them.”

Cyrus wasn’t the only pop singer with edge at the VMAs: Swift also turned heads.

The 23-year-old, who won best female video, appeared to utter an expletive to Gomez when Swift’s rumoured ex, One Direction member Harry Styles, was onstage.

The boy band also earned boos when it won best song of the summer for Best Song Ever, beating out Gomez, Thicke, Cyrus, Daft Punk and Calvin Harris. Rapper A$AP Rocky also provided an awkward moment Sunday when standing next to NBA player Jason Collins, who were both announcing Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ performance. Collins, who is the first active player in the NBA to say he was gay, spoke about coming out as A$AP Rocky looked uncomfortable.

Lady Gaga kicked off the awards show in a less dramatic fashion compared with her past performances. She did change her clothes — and hair — various times onstage while dancing and singing her new hit, Applause. She finished in a thong, revealing her toned body.

Katy Perry closed the VMAs under the Brooklyn bridge in a boxing ring, singing her smash hit Roar.