Eminem Calls Back to Platinum-Blond Slim Shady Era With “Houdini” VMAs Performance

Eminem‘s latest album may be called The Death of Slim Shady, but for his first TV performances from the album, the rapper brought back his platinum-haired alter ego, along with a horde of look-alikes.

In an opening reminiscent of his 2000 VMAs performance of “Real Slim Shady” and “The Way I Am,” in which Eminem was accompanied by 100 look-alikes, Eminem kicked off the 2024 VMAs and his “Houdini” performance by entering Long Island’s UBS Arena sporting a platinum-blond wig, joined by many men with the same hair.

Before going inside the arena, the 2024 MTV VMAs showed a Bat-Signal-like “E” above the New York City skyline. When Eminem and his doppelgängers reached the stage, he wove among them as he continued to perform.

He then segued into “Somebody Save Me,” ditching the wig for a black hat, looking more like his modern self. The track features Jelly Roll, but his parts were merely shown via onstage video as Jelly Roll is currently on tour and was unable to attend the New York awards show. He was set to perform in San Antonio, Texas, on Wednesday night.

The performance ended with Eminem sitting in a chair, looking reflective.

Eminem went into the 2024 MTV VMAs with eight nominations, including for video of the year, best hip-hop, song of the summer and VMAs most iconic performance, the latter for his 2000 medley. He won best hip-hop and best visual effects.

With those two wins, Eminem broke his tie with Peter Gabriel for the most VMA wins by a solo male artist in show history. He also holds the record for most wins by a rap artist with 15 VMAs and is the second most nominated artist in VMAs history with 67 nods, trailing only Madonna with 71 nods.

Taylor Swift leads the 2024 VMA nominations with 12 nods, followed by Post Malone with 11, Eminem with eight and Ariana Grande, Megan Thee Stallion, SZA and Sabrina Carpenter with seven each. 

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