2017 MTV Video Music Award’s host Katy Perry got political right from the start Sunday night talking about how the “world is on fire” during her opening monologue.
“What’s up, Los Angeles! Wow, I am so happy to be back on planet earth. You guys look so great,” the 32-year-old Hillary Clinton supporter told the crowd. “Because, actually, before I left, I took a little break, you know? And I went to space and, when I left, it seemed like things were screwed up.”
“You look so happy, healthy, and peaceful. Feels like since I’ve been gone, you figured out all of the problems in the world right now and the world is doing so well, right,” she added as the audience laughed. “Everything is fine, great, maybe not so much? It’s okay. I’m just going to move forward.”
Then while standing on stage Perry said she needed to get caught up on the news as she holds up a newspaper with a headline that read “The World Is On Fire” and commenting that “2016 was terrible.”
“I do need to catch up,” Perry said. “That’s correct. The world is on fire. Great. Wow. You guys have all really been going through it, haven’t you? How, how the fuck are you coping right now? What is this? This is how you are coping,” she said as someone handed her a fidget spinner.
“Wow, but you know what actually bring us altogether, finally unites us is music, right,” she added. “And tonight, the best artists in world are going to give it their all. Because even in the apocalypse, we deserve a great sound track. Are you with me?”
She later told the audience that they needed to vote for their favorite new artist because it was the “one election where the popular vote actually matters.”
Paris Jackson pleaded with the crowd that what everyone needs to do is standup and be united against “Nazi white supremacist jerks.”
“If we were to all stand up, united, as one, our impact, it would be, huge. Believe me… huge and that’s not fake news,” Jackson explained. “So, let’s leave here tonight remembering that we must show these Nazi white supremacist jerks in Charlottesville and all over the country that as a nation with liberty as our slogan, we have zero tolerance for their violence, their hatred, and their discrimination!”