Last night's (August 27th) MTV Video Music Awards were extremely memorable for multiple reasons. Whether it was Kendrick Lamar wowing with his DAMN. medley or Logic showing some incredible poignancy after performing his track "1-800-273-8255," the night was chock full of moments that will keep everyone talking well into this week. However, one of the most gut-punch statements came from Fifth Harmony, when the women took to the stage to perform their latest single, "Angel." Right before they went into the first bit of vocals, a fifth "member" of the group can be seen standing in the middle position, standing a bit further back on the platform than the group's other four members are. However, in what was clearly a stunt, prior to the singing kicking in, the faceless mystery member was thrown backwards off the platform, with the two Fifth Harmony members closest to the middle moving laterally to close that gap quickly. You can see it all unfold in a video clip from the telecast below.
The on-stage maneuver is being seen as a direct shot at former member Camila Cabello, who exited the group last year in favor of starting a solo career. The root of all this hate between Cabello and her musical sisterhood is the fact that, as per Rolling Stone, she let the rest of Harmony know that she was leaving through her representatives and did not address the other girls personally. The group then pledged to continue on without her, making it clear in an Instagram post that they were blindsided by the news. Cabello tried to walk things back in a post of her own shortly thereafter, but it clearly hasn't softened the cold-as-ice relationship that now exists between her and the group that allowed her to rise to prominence in the first place. No one has come out and confirmed that the VMA stunt was directed squarely at Cabello, but the writing on this wall isn't hard to read at this point.
Check out our other articles that cover the event of this year's MTV VMA's, including a full list of the winners here.