Katy Perry opened the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards in winning style on Sunday (24Aug14) by taking home the first prize of the night.

The Roar hitmaker was feted with the Best Female Video accolade at The Forum in Inglewood, California for Dark Horse featuring Juicy J, beating out Beyonce, Lorde, Iggy Azalea and Ariana Grande.

She took to the stage with the rapper to accept the honour, saying, "Wow, it's a nice way to start out the night with a Moonman (trophy)... We just want to say thank you so much, we put a lot of time and effort and hard work into this song. We are going to party tonight."

The annual prizegiving kicked off with Grande singing her hit Break Free, followed by Nicki Minaj giving a jungle-themed performance of her new track Anaconda.

Jessie J then took the stage to start off the trio's hit song Bang Bang, but when Minaj returned, she seemed to have suffered a wardrobe malfunction due to a quick change from her green-sequined two-piece into a black mini-dress. The rapper came out to join Grande and Jessie J, holding her dress closed as to not expose her breasts, while making small movements for the rest of their performance.