MTV Video Music Awards: Frank Ocean provides a stunner

Frank Ocean, sporting his trademark headband, brought “Thinkin’ Bout You," one of the unlikeliest hits of 2012, to the MTV Video Music Awards stage Thursday. This is a song that's all vocals, and delicate vocals at that.

Ocean's words seemed to disappear in the pauses between the softly strummed acoustic guitar, and credit MTV for playing to Ocean's strengths. As much as his debut, "Channel Orange," experiments with electronics, this is old-school soul music with just a nip of a modern sheen.

The setting was that of a backyard fire, although the giant, "Lost"-like crystals obscured any sense of time and place. No matter, as the closeups were all on Ocean, and as he shifted from graceful singing to wavering falsetto, it was never less than riveting.

This was an awards show embracing an exciting young artist and letting that artist have the floor. Look for Ocean's momentum to continue to pick up, as he'll appear on"Saturday Night Live" next week.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was British boy bandOne Direction.

Let's be fair. Taking a bunch of cheap shots at a boy band, regardless of its country of origin, is a pointlessly easy target. What the One Direction live performance had to show was whether or not any members of this band had breakout star potential. The answer is still inconclusive from this end, as "One Thing" was largely a group number.

The biggest takeaway from "One Thing": The song, live, sounded uncomfortably close to "I Want It That Way" by theBackstreet Boys.

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Frank Ocean Gives Stunning, Stripped-Down VMA Performance

Frank Ocean's name has been plastered across headlines for the past few weeks thanks to the debut of his Channel Orange album and the sexual revelation that preceded it, but Thursday night (September 6) at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, that all seemed like the distant past during his serene performance.

Just a few minutes earlier, Rihanna had hit the stage for a rowdy set with A$AP Rocky and Calvin Harris, but Ocean turned things down a few decibels for his performance. Flames lit up the VMA stage around a faux campfire, and when the smoke cleared a bit, there was Ocean sitting on a makeshift rock, with the universe illuminated on the screens behind him.

The Odd Future singer wore his usual stage getup: an all-black ensemble complemented by his favorite red-and-white bandanna. He remained seated as he began to croon "Thinkin Bout You," from Channel Orange a cappella, with the galaxy shining brightly in the background, creating a perfectly magical moment.

There were no frills and thrills with the performance, just Ocean's soaring vocals and an intensity that seemed to shut out everything around him. Earlier in the night, host Kevin Hart had saluted the 24-year-old — and simultaneously cracked a few jokes at his expense — recalling his decision to let the world know, via the liner notes for his album, that hisfirst love was a man. Ocean has remained rather tight-lipped since sharing the note on his Tumblr account a few months ago, letting his music do all of the talking, and nothing changed tonight.

Celebrities on Twitter seemed to appreciate his performance, with Lady Gaga tweeting, "Watch frank ocean steal this whole show. I'm dead."

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