At Sunday night’s Billboard Music Awards, a small handful of A-List stars and chart-topping musicians crowded into the same room as TikTokers, YouTubers, and a country music star on an attempted comeback tour after a leaked racist rant. To say the bar was on the floor when whipping up that invite list would be a massive understatement, but for the BBMAs, it totally tracks.
If the Golden Globes are Hollywood’s chaotic, drunken answer to the Oscars, then the Billboard Music Awards are that to the Grammys, turned up to an 11 when the ceremony takes place each May as spring turns into early summer and everybody—even celebrities, who are just like us—are feeling their most anxious to get out and turn up.
But no one was more ready for a night of debauchery than England’s premiere party girl, Cara Delevingne: sometimes-model, occasional actress, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ dancefloor buddy, and a perennial tornado of tumult.
Fresh off of sending everyone at the Met Gala home with mysterious gold streaks on their person after she showed up on the carpet covered in sparkling golden body paint for her uninspired take on “Gilded Glamour,” Delevingne was at it again at the Billboard Music Awards. After all, Delevingne has no vested interest in who wins or who loses, so why not take the opportunity to get a little wild? She’s never turned down the invitation before!
Things began early in the night on the BBMAs’ plush gray carpet. One of the few truly big stars sprinkled among the dregs of internet-famous invitees was Megan Thee Stallion, the industry powerhouse and disarming charmer nominated for Top Rap Female Artist. As Megan walked the carpet, strutting and posing, E! News cameras captured an impish supermodel peering out from behind the step-and-repeat, muttering indistinguishable nothings as Megan grabbed the train of her custom Mugler dress and threw it in the air so the photographers could capture some much-needed movement and drama.
Because photographers at these kinds of events generally have no sense of boundaries as they scream directions at stars, some began to encourage Delevingne to come out from behind the barrier and join Megan for a photo. Calls of “Cara, get in there, Cara!” were interspersed with hoarse screams of “MEGAN, LOOK RIGHT, LOOK RIGHT!”
Suddenly, Delevingne appeared next to Megan on the carpet like a devil on her shoulder, grabbing Megan’s train and tossing it into the air herself. Megan, ever the professional, continued to pose and threw Delevingne a few courtesy laughs, but there did seem to be an unmistakable look of irritation on her face in an already-chaotic moment, where a photographer who sounded just like character actress Margo Martindale pestered Megan, “Can you turn this way for us in the cheap seats?”
The moment quickly became fodder for the meme of the night, with users truthfully suggesting that “your chances of being watched by Cara Delevingne are slim but never none.” From there, the evening only continued to lurch on toward Delevingne-imposed bedlam.
During the actual show, Delevingne was seated next to Megan and behind Doja Cat, something I’m sure caused both musicians to activate their TMJ by grinding their teeth through forced smiles as everyone shuffled in to take their seats. Doja and Megan are two incredibly energetic performers and contagious personalities, and yet Delevingne’s energy sitting among them ratioed their collective vibe 50:1. Being seated next to someone like Cara Delevingne against your will must feel like getting stuck next to the person at a house party who did coke before arriving expecting a rager and then showed up to find it was more of a wine-and-conversation kind of gathering.
At one point in the night, the BBMAs Twitter feed captured Megan and Doja talking between awards, and Delevingne popped into the frame out of nowhere to interject and hype Doja up. “I love you two together,” Doja says with all the energy of the most popular girl in high school lying to your face. “That’s my bottom bitch,” replies Megan, referring to Delevingne. A rookie mistake. You can’t encourage this kind of behavior lest it is exacerbated!
And it certainly was. A few moments later, Megan received the award for Top Rap Female Artist, sending Delevingne absolutely wild, flailing and sticking her tongue out while bobbing her head around in a state of catatonia. As Megan stood up to move toward the stage and collect her award, Delevingne grabbed her dress train again and flung it in the air.
Her energy is very poppers-meets-molly if you did those two things after accidentally drinking a bottle of cold brew concentrate thinking it was already diluted. It’s unbearable enough just to look at, I can’t imagine what it’s like to be around. Megan and Doja must be exhausted today.
Megan Thee Stallion and Cara Delevingne attend the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.
Wilson YeungDelevingne continued to spin both the BBMAs and Twitter into mutual mayhem when she eventually ended up writhing on the floor of the venue to capture a photo of Doja Cat, Fat Joe, and DJ Khaled. “Is that Cara AGAIN???” one Twitter user asked to the tune of over 20,000 likes. Delevingne’s movements are so fast it’s almost frightening. One has to wonder if she just runs around events doing this for people she barely knows and everyone has to go along with it.
At every function, whispers ripple through the room when word breaks out that she’s there. Everyone’s terrified that Cara Delevingne may cross their path at any given moment.
It would seem that Delevingne brings this energy to every room she’s in. Whether she’s appearing at Saturday’s SNL after-party with Selena Gomez and Post Malone or tongue-out with a bottle in hand at an event next to New York Mayor Eric Adams back in March, she’s everywhere—and she’s bringing the party whether you like it or not.
But others noted a pattern of public behavior from Delevingne as of late that’s more concerning than her relentless desire to go until dawn: her apparent disregard for personal space and boundaries when it comes to Black women, citing the visible looks of annoyance from Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion, as well as videos from 2021 where Delevingne got on stage with Azealia Banks while Banks was performing at Leah McSweeney’s Halloween party.
Delevingne not only grabbed the mic from Banks while she tried to perform “212” to mutter incoherent rantings but then pawed all over Banks and licked her legs after she relinquished the mic to Banks so she could finish the song. Though Banks is never one to hide how she’s feeling in a given moment, she was in the middle of a show and performing her most popular hit, she couldn’t exactly escort Delevingne away. Besides, Delevingne eventually fell off the stage anyway.
To give her the benefit of the doubt, Delevingne has famously been moving among circles of the celebrity elite for over a decade now, spotted with everyone from Taylor Swift to Margot Robbie and beyond. There’s no question that she knows just about everyone, and if she doesn’t, she’s certainly willing to get right up in their face until she does.
Maybe all of these people really do love her! Maybe their visible expressions of indignation are all just playful bits done for the camera. But maybe they are just smiling and nodding, hoping that she’ll soon find another person to glom onto as she continues her never ending quest for the next best party. Cara Delevingne may be our last remaining true party girl, a holdover from a bygone era of tongue-out, lined-eyebrow raging that she never grew out of. She’s now become too strong, too inescapable. We cannot get rid of her, we can only hide.
