Beyonce Joins VMAs Lineup, Wale Set to Lead House Band

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MTV News revealed today that Beyoncé has joined the slate of performers at this year's Video Music Awards. Sasha Fierce's addition to the roster isn't all that surprising; her husband Jay-Z has already been booked to perform, plus Beyoncé is tied for the most nominations with Lady Gaga, who is also set to appear September 13th at New York's Radio City Music Hall. As always, Rolling Stone will have full coverage from the event, so stay tuned.

In other VMAs news that should excite all those Twilighters out there, the first single of New Moon's soundtrack, Death Cab for Cutie's "Meet Me on the Equinox," will premiere on MTV.com the same day as the Awards. Plus, rapper Wale and the band UCB will serve as this year's VMAs house band. As Rock Daily previously reported, Muse, Taylor Swift, Green Day and Pink — and maybe Britney Spears? — will also perform at the VMAs, which will be hosted for a second straight year by Brit comic Russell Brand.

Look back at 2008's VMAs, in photos..

While Beyoncé doesn't have as many amazingly Britastic moments at the VMAs as Ms. Spears, Mrs. Jay-Z does have her share of memorable MTV award show performances. Watch a few vids from Beyoncé's MTV reel below:

2003 VMAs - "Baby Boy"/"Crazy in Love"

2006 VMAs - "Ring the Alarm"

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Song Stories

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Fishbone | 1985

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.

More Song Stories entries »

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