Whoa! What a year for music. This year the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards came out with a bang. Hosted by Kevin Hart, the VMAs took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Nominations were announced on July 31, 2012. Rihanna and Drake each received five nominations; Katy Perry as well as Beyonce received four each. The group One Direction were the big winners that night, sweeping their three nominations, including Best New Artist.

The winner for the biggest award of the night, Video of the Year, was Rihanna, for her song “We Found Love.” For Best Male Video, Chris Brown took home the hardware for his song “Turn Up the Music.” Best Female Video was won by Nicki Minaj for her smash hit “Starships.” For Best New Artist, winners were the one and only One Direction; they won as well for Best Pop Video, for their song “What Makes You Beautiful.” The Best Rock Video award went to Coldplay,  for “Paradise,” and the Best Hip-Hop Video award went to Drake, for “HYFR.”

Rihanna started the evening’s festivities off with her new song “Cockiness (Love It)” and her smash single “We Found Love.” P!nk  performed her chart topping hit “Blow Me (One Last Kiss)” while Frank Ocean sang “Thinkin’ Bout You.” For their first performance on the VMA stage One Direction sang “One Thing.” Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz brought down the house with “Yuck, No Worries,” while Green Day rocked out with “Let Yourself Go.” Alicia Keys teamed up with Minaj and Gabby Douglas for “Girl on Fire.”   Taylor Swift closed the memorable evening with her hit “We Are Never Getting Back Together.”

Be ready for next years’ VMAs, because if this one was a huge hit, just imagine what next year will bring!