--- title: Lorde's 2017 MTV Video Music Awards Dance Becomes a Meme description: She choreographed an interpretive dance to "Homemade Dynamite" canonical: https://time.com/4917961/lorde-dance-mtv-vmas-2017/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-28T02:36:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:51.368Z og:title: The Most Useful Memes of Lorde's VMA Dance Are Here og:description: She choreographed an interpretive dance to "Homemade Dynamite" og:url: https://time.com/4917961/lorde-dance-mtv-vmas-2017/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9563006404d24987/6988db654ee262faec30ebf2/mtv-video-music-awards-49.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: MTV-VMAS-2017 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Most Useful Memes of Lorde's VMA Dance Are Here twitter:description: She choreographed an interpretive dance to "Homemade Dynamite" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9563006404d24987/6988db654ee262faec30ebf2/mtv-video-music-awards-49.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # It's Time to Embrace Lorde's VMA Dance As Your New Favorite Meme > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Aug 28, 2017 2:36 AM UTC  Lorde performs onstage during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on August 27, 2017 in Inglewood, California. Lorde performs onstage during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards at The Forum on August 27, 2017 in Inglewood, California.Kevin Winter—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Aug 28, 2017 2:36 AM UTC Lorde’s performance at the [2017 MTV Video Music Awards](http://time.com/4903945/mtv-vmas-2017-watching-guide/) became an immediate meme. Instead of singing “Homemade Dynamite,” the singer, who tweeted earlier in the evening that she [had the flu](https://twitter.com/lorde/status/901951101842235392), opted to choreograph an interpretive dance — and the internet went wild in confusion. A lot of people compared her to Napoleon Dynamite. > [](https://twitter.com/XoxRooXox/status/901971815802818564) > [](https://twitter.com/nessaxbauer/status/901972407837065216) > [](https://twitter.com/Dr%5FDr%5FRamon/status/901970460971327489) Some saw a little of the _OA_ in her. > [](https://twitter.com/MaggiePalozzi/status/901970654827827200) > [](https://twitter.com/BlondieeWood/status/901985648223105024) > [](https://twitter.com/BriCutter/status/901971009305280514) Others continued to love and appreciate Lorde’s artistry. > [](https://twitter.com/deadlostboy/status/901972075325394945) > [](https://twitter.com/jbars97/status/901970533750898690) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4917961/lorde-dance-mtv-vmas-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4917961/lorde-dance-mtv-vmas-2017/"},"headline":"It's Time to Embrace Lorde's VMA Dance As Your New Favorite Meme","datePublished":"2017-08-28T02:36:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:51.368Z","description":"She choreographed an interpretive dance to \"Homemade Dynamite\"","url":"https://time.com/4917961/lorde-dance-mtv-vmas-2017/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Music","onetime","MTV VMAs 2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9563006404d24987/6988db654ee262faec30ebf2/mtv-video-music-awards-49.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9563006404d24987/6988db654ee262faec30ebf2/mtv-video-music-awards-49.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MTV-VMAS-2017","caption":"2017 MTV Video Music Awards - Fixed Show","creditText":"Kevin Winter—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/4917961/lorde-dance-mtv-vmas-2017/","name":"It's Time to Embrace Lorde's VMA Dance As Your New Favorite Meme"}}]}] ```