Sparkling from head to toe in the shade of mint, huge green jewels hanging from her ears, the queen wore her hair back and braided. Her hive of fans was pleased, breathless on Twitter, as her 4-year-old princess walked in gold and showed off a dainty jeweled head band worn at the front with two long braids.

From sparkly Superman T-shirts to bejeweled high top kicks, the VMAs is an anything-goes carpet, an opportunity for names large and smaller from TV, music and elsewhere to strut and clown for throngs of cameras live from Madison Square Garden.

Beyonce and Blue posed with Sybrina Fulton, Lezley McSpadden and Gwen Carr, the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, among others. Collectively, they're in the Mothers of the Movement, women of color who lost children to violence and appeared in Beyonce's "Lemonade" visual album holding photos of their lost sons.

(Read also: MTV VMAs to feature Kanye West, performance by Beyonce)

Nicki Minaj slayed in sexy royal blue, a clingy mermaid-style gown with a crisscross front and huge side cutouts. Walking in the tight outfit proved a challenge. Her accessory was Meek, wearing a black zip jacket with red rose appliques and a huge rectangle diamond necklace.

More subdued was Amber Rose in a black, double-breasted pantsuit, bra top out. Kim Kardashian also opted for black as she posed with hubby Kanye West, casual in a white short-sleeve T-shirt and white pants.

Britney Spears was in black, too, a form-flattering dress with a long open slash from the shoulder to the hip, her blonde locks long and loose.

Swinging her famous high ponytail, Ariana Grande blew kisses at the cameras in a tiny, flirty lace top off the shoulders with a pair of wide black trousers and black choker. Speaking of walking, Rita Ora had no trouble in towering platform shoes with a sheer black skirt with red feather accents and a black leather motorcycle jacket.

(Read also: Beyoncé’s activewear brand 'Ivy Park' responds to sweatshop slavery accusation)

The impersonating cast of "RuPaul's Drag Race," meanwhile, did what they do best, walking as Lady Gaga in her meat dress, Spears and her famous snake (this one a fake) and Lil' Kim with one nipple covered only by a blue pastie.

The guys represented. Rapper Desiigner was bare-chested in a salmon suit, his eternally huge smile on his face and glittery chains around his neck. Nick Cannon was in white, including a turban, to go with his sleeveless T and long shorts, while 2 Chainz wore a red and green stripe bandanna scarf with a tasseled white long-sleeve shirt.

One of the evening's hosts, DJ Khaled, showed off his sharp David August black suit.

The VMAs attracted many in MTV's reality stable, including "Teen Mom OG" Farrah Abraham as full-on Wonder Woman. The night also attracted a few supermodels, including Naomi Campbell in a short ivory dress and Joan Smalls in a clay red crop top.

Four of the Final Five gymnastics stars from the Rio Olympics also walked the carpet — Simone Biles, in a sequined red mini, Aly Raisman, in a girly floral overlay dress, Laurie Hernandez in blue and Madison Kocian in aqua.

Historic multi-gold winning Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was chill in a simple pair of black pants, white shirt and a black jacket as photographers shouted, "Where are your medals?"

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