Pop culture fans are still “Hung Up” over one infamous kiss decades later.
While the MTV Video Music Awards are meant to be all about the music, the focus quickly turned to some PDA during Britney Spears, Madonna and Christina Aguilera’s steamy performance on August 28, 2003.
After Madonna hit the stage to sing “Like a Virgin” and “Hollywood,” the music superstar shook viewers when she locked lips with each of her coperformers, Spears and Aguilera, during the show’s opening number.
“I’ve been oblivious until this moment,” Madonna said weeks after the performance during an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show. “I had no idea that it was going to cause the ruckus that it caused. It was just a friendly kiss. I don’t know why people are making such a big deal about it.”
While Madonna hasn’t addressed the moment in recent years, Spears and Aguilera have shared their thoughts on the major award show moment. Keep reading to see what the artists really thought of the unforgettable performance:
Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera’s Initial Reactions
Minutes after the performance, Entertainment Tonight was able to speak with Spears and get her thoughts on the TV moment. “I’m on a very major high right now. I feel very cool,” she said with a laugh. “It was amazing. I feel very blessed and it was awesome.”
As for Aguilera, she praised Madonna’s “very soft lips” and called her a “cute little kisser” after the show. “Madonna is just so professional, so focused, so great and very respectful to me, and it was great,” she told ET. “[Madonna] was great to work with, definitely the highlight of my night.”
Britney Spears’ Big Switch
In her 2023 memoir titled The Woman in Me, Spears recalled rehearsing for the VMAs performance with air kisses. When showtime got closer, however, the vision began to change.
“About two minutes before the performance, I was sitting on the side of the stage and thinking about my biggest performance to date at the VMAs, when I’d pulled off a suit to reveal a sparkly outfit,” she wrote, referencing her performance of “Oops!…I Did It Again” in 2000. “I thought to myself, ‘I want a moment like that again this year. With the kiss, should I just go for it?’”
Christina Aguilera Recalls Cut-Away From Producers
During the performance, cameras captured Spears’ ex-boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, reacting to the kiss. The moment, however, left many viewers unable to witness Aguilera’s kiss with Madonna.
“It was weird,” the “Genie in a Bottle” singer said on Radio Andy in 2018 when recalling the cut-away. “I definitely saw the newspaper the next day and it was like, ‘Oh well, I guess I got left out of that.’ Everything happened so quickly back then and everything was in a whirlwind. I had my own performance of ‘Fighter’ with Dave Navarro. It was a kick-ass performance. I was OK with that. She could have her kiss. It’s fine.”
MTV Video Vanguard Winners Through the Years
Christina Aguilera’s Magic in a Bottle
Aguilera showed no hard feelings about the VMAs in August 2024 when she called the infamous performance “magical.”
“Love a good makeout moment,” she told Glamour with a laugh. “I love a theme, I love a concept. I love a specific character to get into. Madonna playing the role of the groom. … We’re up here with Madonna and we’re part of this huge moment. It was really fun. The energy leading up to it, the rehearsals, everything. It was pretty magical.”
