Every Way the 2024 MTV VMAs Referenced Britney Spears

The 2024 MTV Video Music Awards may have been about today's biggest stars, but MTV's annual award show very much served as an homage to a popstar of the early aughts -- Britney Spears. From Sabrina Carpenter to Tate McRae, Addison Rae and the night's host, Megan Thee Stallion, all of It-girls were paying tribute to Spears, who even began trending despite not being in attendance on Wednesday night. While the "Lucky" singer was MIA, she sure did receive lots of love, starting with Rae gushing over Spears on the red carpet ahead of the show. When asked about the most memorable past performances at the awards show, Rae pointed to Spears's 2000 rendition of "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" and "Oops!...I Did It Again." Halsey, meanwhile, who has her own track named after one of Spears' biggest hits, mentioned the the pop star's VMA's smooch with Madonna, with Coco Jones recounting Spears' famous "I'm a Slave 4 U" performance. For Carpenter's part, while singing her hit track of the summer -- perhaps the year -- "Espresso," she channeled the music video for Spears' hit, "Oops!…I Did It Again," complete with a diamond-encrusted swing and astronauts sent from an unworldly planet. She also the played the snippet of dialogue from the track during the performance. She even mimicked the Britney and Madonna kiss that took the world by storm, smooching one of her extraterrestrial backup dancers. McRae, meanwhile, took it a step further by recreating Spears' legendary 2001 VMAs look by wearing a transparent lace Roberto Cavalli dress. While Spears originally wore a look by Dolce & Gabanna, the inspiration was clearly there. While it may be a small reference, BLACKPINK member, Lisa, wore a head mic for her performance of "New Woman" and "Rockstar." The accessory has been popping up all over, but was largely made famous by Spears in the 2000s. But no one else donned an actual python like thee hottie herself, Meg, with the VMAs host channeling Spears' 2001 VMAs performance of "I'm a Slave 4 U." "I'm just playing, come get this thing!" she said after a few seconds with the snake around her neck. As for how the internet reacted, they were all here for it, with Spears stans pointing out all the references to their lady Brit. "They should just call it the BritMA's. Britney has been referenced a hand full of times already and the show has been on for less than a half an hour …..  BRITNEY WILL ALWAYS BE AN ICON #BritneySpears #BritneyNerd #BritneyArmy," one fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter). "And once AGAIN, Britney KEEPS being referenced and talked about... #BritneySpears #SabrinaCarpenter #MeganTheeStallion #CocoJones #tatemcrae #VMAs," another wrote, pointing to some of the night's biggest moments. "The VMAs to me is kinda like National Reference Britney Spears Day (biased) (correct)," a Spears stan added. To see more coverage from the 2024 MTV VMAs click here.