Kanye ends MTV awards boycott
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Kanye West (left) and 50 Cent present an award at last year's edition. (Getty Images: Kevin Winter)
A year after vowing never to perform in the MTV Video Music Awards again, Kanye West will close the show's 25th annual ceremony in Hollywood on Monday (Australian time), joining a line-up which includes Christina Aguilera and the Jonas Brothers.
The outspoken rapper was upset by his treatment at last year's show, when his performance was relegated to a small stage in the Las Vegas venue.
West also failed to win any prizes, and accused the music cable network of exploiting Britney Spears, who inadvertently stole the show by badly lip-synching and dancing to her new tune.
The faded pop star will again open the show this year, but she will not perform.
That means she will be on hand if she wins an award.
Spears has garnered three nominations for the clip to her single Piece of Me - Best Female Video, Best Pop Video and Video of the Year.
"MTV has long played an important role in my career," Spears said in a statement.
"How can I not be there to kick off their 25th VMAs? I'm excited to open the entire show, to say hi to my fans and to be nominated."
Exactly how she planned to open the show remained unclear.
In previous appearances she has kissed Madonna and performed with a writhing snake.
Spears has yet to win an MTV Video Music Award, and her nominations this year are particularly tantalising after her much-derided appearance in 2007, when she lip-synched her way through a dance number in an ill-fitting black bikini.
"She will be ... doing something so mindbending, it'll probably make you want to start families with each other in a random, possibly Mormon, way," the show's host, English comedian Russell Brand, joked during a press preview at the Paramount Pictures lot where the ceremony will be held.
He was joined at the preview by Aguilera, who will be making her first televised performance since giving birth to a baby boy in January.
Another performer, rapper T.I., was also on hand at the preview.
The trio posed for photographs before Aguilera walked to a waiting limousine and sped off.
Brand described Disney teen idols the Jonas Brothers as "God's favourite virgins," and suggested that their request to be introduced at the event by teen country starlet Taylor Swift was "a decision made from below their sexy little waists".
In recognition of the ceremony's silver anniversary, Brand said MTV would pay homage to the show's storied past.
In particular, Katy Perry, the singer of the summer's biggest hit "I Kissed A Girl," will cover Madonna's "Like A Virgin".
Other previously announced performers include R&B singer Rihanna and Detroit rocker Kid Rock, who allowed the media to watch him rehearse his big new hit "All Summer Long".
-Reuters
