Miley Cyrus and a dancer perform at the 2013 MTV Europe Music Awards in Amsterdam. Photo / AP
Miley Cyrus and a dancer perform at the 2013 MTV Europe Music Awards in Amsterdam. Photo / AP
She couldn't resist. Singer Miley Cyrus smoked a joint on stage and twerked with a dwarf during the MTV Europe Music Awards.
The 20-year old pop star also took home the Best Video award for her hit song Wrecking Ball during a show with a strong lineup of other performers including Eminem and Katy Perry.
Cyrus opened the space-themed show singing the song We Can't Stop, while wearing a silver spandex suit and gyrating her buttocks in the move known as twerking in the general direction of her smaller female dance partner.
Cyrus generated headlines for a similar performance at the US MTV Awards earlier in the year, when dancer and little person Hollis Jane said she left the show "shaking and crying".
"I had never done anything in a costume with a mask like that before ... I had never been in a performance where I was purely meant to be gawked or laughed at.
"I was being stared and laughed at for all of the wrong reasons. I was being looked at as a prop ... as something less than human."
But to the delight of the crowd in Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome, Cyrus finished the number by sticking out her tongue, the same expression she flashed repeatedly during her eyebrow-raising appearance at MTV's Video Music Awards in New York in August.
After winning the top award at the end of the show, she celebrated by demonstratively lighting up a large spliff and quickly taking a puff.
Marijuana is not legal in the Netherlands, but smokers can't be prosecuted for possessing small amounts and it is sold openly in cafes known euphemistically as "coffee shops".
Cyrus, who long ago shed her image of innocence as the child star of Hannah Montana, has made no secret of her appreciation of Amsterdam's attractions, arriving on the Friday before the show and hanging out at the Greenhouse coffee shop downtown with several other stars.
She also wore marijuana leaf emblems in her earphones during a live rendition of Wrecking Ball against the backdrop of a giant video screen of herself crying.
The EMAs traditionally focus on global, rather than US pop music acts, though there's a lot of overlap: winners included Bruno Mars, who grabbed Best Song for Locked Out of Heaven, and Eminem both in the Best Hip-Hop and Global Icon category.
Another notable winner was Katy Perry for Best Female Artist. Perry, apparently caught by surprise at her win, spit out a sip of champagne and took the stage to thank her fans.
During Perry's performance, she hung suspended by wires as green lasers reflected off her mirrored outfit during a rendition of Unconditional.
Eminem, who has just released his first album in several years, appeared to have lost none of his rapping skill as he performed Rap God, spitting out words at a blistering pace.
He was handed his Global Icon honour by Anchorman character Ron Burgundy (actor Will Ferrell), who informed him that Dutch DJ Afrojack had been insulting him behind his back.
Image 1 of 15: Miley Cyrus arrives at the 2013 MTV Europe Music Awards, in Amsterdam. Photo / AP
Cyrus also made a memorable red carpet appearance, flashing the flesh in a backless mini-dress.
The former Hannah Montana star wore the skimpy outfit - printed with the words Please Stop Violence and the faces of late rappers Tupac and Notorious BIG - which she teamed with thigh-high boots.
The 19-year-old wasn't the only one showing some skin.
Australian rapper Iggy Azalea turned up in a skimpy, black cut-out black dress.
The dress proved a little too revealing though. Azalea suffered a wardrobe malfunction and flashed her lady bits to the cameras.
Ellie Goulding looked stunning in a black lace dress by Dolce and Gabbana, while Eva Simon chose a graphic printed outfit.
US singer Katy Perry went for a more demure look in a mint green dress and heels.
The songstress admitted she was missing her musician boyfriend John Mayer but had been indulging in some shopping.
More than a thousand "screamers" - overwhelmingly young female music fans - lined up on the edges of an arrivals hall to catch sight of their favourite stars ahead of the ceremony.
Although the women were ushered to the edges of a red carpet through doors reading "Screamers' Entrance," their presence is not entirely scripted.
Stephanie Strougo, a Brazilian-Dutch teenager, says auditions were held for two days in Amsterdam to win a slot.
She said she had to pass a 30-second singing test "to prove my love of music".
