Lorde rocks up for MTV video accolade

Lorde took home the award for Best Rock Video at the MTV Video Music Awards. Photo / AP

She's been a reluctant rock star in the past but Lorde happily took home the award for Best Rock Video at the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles yesterday, even swearing like a proper rocker.

The Royals singer beat Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, Linkin Park and Imagine Dragons to take home the prized Moon Man statue.

After a winning hug from close friend Taylor Swift, Lorde accepted the award, saying: "This is really crazy and I'm super grateful. I want to thank my video director Joel Kefali and my friends who were in the video and, oh shit - people who voted. Sorry for swearing! Thank you so much."

The 17-year-old missed out on a second award, Best Female Video going to Dark Horse singer Katy Perry, who triumphed over Lorde, Beyonce, Iggy Azalea and Ariana Grande.

Perry also took top honours for the strangest outfit of the night, donning a full-length denim Versace frock, which she called a "throwback" to Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake's matching outfits at the 2001 American Music Awards.

Other attention-grabbing outfits included Taylor Swift's incredibly short romper suit and model Amber Rose's barely there chandelier bikini.

Nicki Minaj suffered a major wardrobe malfunction during her opening performance, when her dress split lengthways, leaving the singer to shuffle awkwardly as she tried to hold the dress together.

The Anaconda singer had been tipped to include live snakes in her performance but they were pulled from the show after a boa constrictor bit a back-up dancer during rehearsals.

Iggy Azalea's bad luck continued at the awards - just days after the Australian singer tumbled off stage during a live performance - she failed to collect any Moon Men trophies despite seven nominations.

Likewise, fellow Aussies Sia and 5 Seconds of Summer missed out on all of the major prizes.

Instead, Miley Cyrus was the big winner of the night, claiming Video of the Year for her controversial Wrecking Ball performance.

But in sharp contrast to last year, where Cyrus stole the show with her provocative twerking and foam finger antics, the singer used this year's awards to highlight homelessness.

Cyrus arranged for a homeless man to accept the award on her behalf.

"Thank y'all, my name is Jesse and I accepting this award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving, lost and scared for their lives right now. I know this because I am one of these people," he said, as Cyrus looked on.

"Though I may have been invisible to you in the streets, I have a lot of the same dreams that brought many of you here tonight."

- AAP