It goes without saying that Beyoncé tore down the house with her performance before accepting the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award [1]. The 16-minute medley, which was riddled with songs from her new album, was filled with so many hair flips, so much popping and locking, and so much general fierceness that it felt more like 16 seconds. And don't even get us started on that Blue Ivy appearance [2]. You can, of course, watch the full performance [3], but we're reliving the most iconic moments in GIFs.
When She Showed Us Exactly How a Diva Breaks It Down
When She Became the Physical Manifestation of Waking Up Like This
When She Sang to Her Own Hand Because We Weren't Worthy
When She Made Us Entirely Forget About Nicki Minaj's Booty
When She Doled Out One of the Most Epic Hair Flips Ever
When She Did This and Everyone Was Practically Electrocuted by the Power of It All
When She Casually Pulled Out This Sexy Move
When She Shut It Down Like This
When She Stopped Being Fierce and Started Being Effervescent and Beautiful
When This Flawless, Epic, Historical Moment Happened and We Were Just in Awe
When She Popped It and Locked It Like It Was Nothing
When This Happened and Our Hearts Skipped a Beat
When There Were Two Beyoncés Doing the Same Thing, and One of Them Was Giant
When She Did a Double Hair Flip, Leaving Everyone Bewildered
When She Rode on Her Surfboard and All Was Right With the World
When Her Fierceness Was Easily More Than Everyone Else's Combined
When She Casually Stood Out Among the Scores of Backup Dancers
When She Looked Exactly Like a Beyoncé Music Video and We Were Beside Ourselves
When She Stomped It Out Like No One Had Stomped Before
When She Blinded Us With Her Sequins and Beautiful Hair
When She Was Silhouetted by Adorable Home Videos
When the Videos Kept Coming and We Never Wanted the Performance to End
When We Were Beyoncé, and Beyoncé Was All of Us, and Everything Felt Like It Would Be OK
And Finally, When She Stood There in All of Her Glory, and She Was Eternal