MTV VMAs 2019: Tana Mongeau Channels Britney Spears with a Snake on the Red Carpet

Tana Mongeau is carving her place into MTV Video Music Awards hisssstory with a very special red carpet accessory: a live snake.

The YouTuber, 21, walked the carpet on Monday with a reptile in tow, in an apparent tribute to Britney Spears, who famously performed with a snake draped over her shoulders in 2001. (Justin Bieber also brought a snake in 2011, so it’s about that time for another reptile to make an appearance, apparently.)

Mongeau, who did not arrive with beau (and maybe husband) Jake Paul, wore a metallic gold patterned minidress with thigh-boots in a matching design. The star held the yellow snake in her hands as it writhed and hissed.

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She completed her look with geometric sunglasses that she perched on her nose, and gloves that stretched over her elbows – as well as what appeared to be a diamond eternity band on her left ring finger, possibly a nod to her controversial Las Vegas wedding to her fellow YouTuber Paul.

Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock
Andrew H. Walker/Shutterstock

 

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The moment was seemingly an homage to Spears, who carried a 7-ft. albino python on stage with her for an iconic performance of “I’m a Slave 4 U” at the 2001 VMAs.

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc; FREDERIC J. BROWN/Getty Images
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc; FREDERIC J. BROWN/Getty Images

“Sometimes I wonder what this snake is up to these days … Anybody know where it’s at?” she joked in 2012, before informing fans that she learned the snake, named Banana, was still alive and well.

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Justin Bieber, meanwhile, also once brought a snake to the ceremony when he was just 17 years old.

The “Sorry” singer posed on the black carpet in 2011 with his pet snake Johnson, a pale orange baby boa constrictor.

“It’ll get, like, four feet,” he told EW of his exotic pet. “It’s gonna get big.”

The 2019 MTV Video Music Awards are airing live from Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Center on Monday, Aug. 26, at 8 p.m. ET.