The MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) are always an important date in the queer cultural calendar. And the 2024 event, which took place on September 11, was no exception. Chappell Roan’s performance of Good Luck, Babe! is already one for the ages; looking at it alongside four other VMA appearances from years past, the VMAs’ historic influence over queer culture is clear.
1. Chappell Roan, Good Luck, Babe! (2024)
Roan’s appearance at the 2024 VMAs was centred in her queerness – from the medieval-inspired staging for her performance of sapphic anthem Good Luck, Babe!, to her speech thanking the “queer and trans people who fuel pop”.