--- title: See Photos of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at VMAs description: American costume designer Arianne Phillips delighted social media by sharing photos of Britney and Christina backstage at the VMAs in 2003. canonical: https://time.com/4713812/vma-2003-britney-photos/ author: Kate Samuelson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-27T17:20:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:16.169Z og:title: See Photos of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at VMAs og:description: These backstage 'Like a Virgin' photos will make you feel like it's 2003 again og:url: https://time.com/4713812/vma-2003-britney-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See Photos of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at VMAs twitter:description: These backstage 'Like a Virgin' photos will make you feel like it's 2003 again twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # See Backstage Photos of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera's Most Outrageous VMA Moment by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Mar 27, 2017 5:20 PM UTC by [Kate Samuelson](https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/) ## Kate Samuelson Mar 27, 2017 5:20 PM UTC Throwbacks don’t always have to occur on a Thursday. American costume designer Arianne Phillips, particularly known for her work on _Walk the Line_ and _A Single Man_, has delighted social media by sharing two polaroid photos taken backstage at the VMAs in 2003. The photos show pop princesses [Britney Spears](http://time.com/4706529/fan-recreates-britney-spears-toxic/) and [Christina Aguilera](http://time.com/4372840/christina-aguilera-orlando-shooting-proceeds-donate/) in full bridal getups shortly before their [iconic performance of ‘Like a Virgin,’](http://time.com/4468932/vmas-2016-mtv-britney-spears-video/) starring Madonna and Missy Elliott. During the rendition, which was voted the most outrageous VMA moment of all time in [an MTV poll in 2011](http://www.mtv.com/news/2581384/most-outrageous-vma-moments/), Madonna popped up out of a giant wedding cake wearing a tuxedo, the superstars bumped and grinded and Madonna and Britney shared a kiss (much to the apparent displeasure of Justin Timberlake, who was in the audience watching). The performance was celebrating the 20th anniversary of ‘Like a Virgin,’ which is now 33 years old. Watch a (grainy) video of the scandalous performance [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxtL43ddBwM). See Photos of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at VMAs ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4713812/vma-2003-britney-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4713812/vma-2003-britney-photos/"},"headline":"See Backstage Photos of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera's Most Outrageous VMA Moment","datePublished":"2017-03-27T17:20:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:16.169Z","description":"The polaroids were taken before their 'Like a Virgin' performance in 2003","url":"https://time.com/4713812/vma-2003-britney-photos/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","vmas"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kate Samuelson","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/kate-samuelson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4713812/vma-2003-britney-photos/","name":"See Backstage Photos of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera's Most Outrageous VMA Moment"}}]}] ```