Taylor Swift has once again dominated the MTV Video Music Awards, becoming the most decorated solo artist at the VMAs of all time after winning seven categories, including the night’s top award, video of the year.
Swift, who was already the most nominated artist at the start of the evening, ended it by surpassing Beyoncé’s record set as a solo artist, winning her 30th VMA. Beyoncé has won 25 VMAs as a solo artist, two with Destiny’s Child and two with Jay-Z as the Carters.
Accepting the first of seven wins on Wednesday – best collaboration with Post Malone for their duet Fortnight – the 34-year-old singer opened the evening by acknowledging the anniversary of 9/11.
“Waking up this morning in New York on September 11th, I’ve just been thinking about what happened 23 years ago,” she said. “Everyone who lost a loved one and everyone that we lost and that is the most important thing today. And everything that happens tonight falls behind that.”
Megan Thee Stallion presided over the ceremony at Long Island’s UBS Arena, which marked 40 years of VMAs (or “the Voluptuous Megan Award” as she put it). The host honoured past VMAs moments – including Britney Spears’ I’m a Slave 4 U live snake outfit – and performed songs Boa, Hiss and Mamushi with Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba.
Though Eminem opened the show with an army of Slim Shady doppelgängers, evoking his 2000 VMA performance, the 2024 awards belonged to the women, with an international cast of female artists dominating the airtime.
Ascendant star Sabrina Carpenter sang Please Please Please from a glittery swing, kissed an alien for Taste, and teased a squad of astronauts as she performed Espresso, which won song of the year.
“This is really special,” Carpenter said while accepting her first ever VMA. “I just feel so grateful to have truly the best fans in the world … and thank you to that me espresso.”
Lisa, the resident rapper of Blackpink, won best K-pop for her solo song Rockstar, while Brazilian artist Anitta won best Latin for Mil Veces.
South African artist Tyla won the male-dominated category of best Afrobeats with her hit Water. “The global impact that Water had on the world just proves that African music can be pop music, too,” Tyla said, though she noted the award was “bittersweet” because “there’s a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats … African music is so diverse. It’s more than just Afrobeats.”
For the seventh consecutive year, a woman won the night’s lifetime achievement prize, the Video Vanguard Award, which this year went to Katy Perry. Her husband, actor Orlando Bloom, introduced her onstage before she performed a medley of her biggest hits, including Dark Horse, ET, California Gurls, Teenage Dream, I Kissed a Girl and Firework.
Perry skated above the critical backlash to Woman’s World, saying: “There are so many things that have to align to have a long and successful career as an artist. There are no decade-long accidents.”
Perry thanked her family, the LGBTQ community and “MySpace, Warped Tour and all the bygone places where I found a voice, identity and a community so early on.
“I’m excited when I look around music today and I see all the amazing young artists who are operating with confidence, agency, vulnerability and authenticity,” she continued. “One of the biggest reasons I’m standing here right now is I learned to block out the noise that every single artist has to constantly fight, especially women.”
Rising star Chappell Roan won best new artist, dedicating her win to “all the drag artists who inspire me” and “queer and trans people that fuel pop”.
Reading from her diary onstage, the Missouri native added: “And to all the queer kids in the midwest watching right now, I see you and I understand you, because I’m one of you. And don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t be exactly who you want to be, bitch!”
Roan’s fellow nominee Benson Boone, a 22-year-old singer-songwriter who blew up on TikTok, also made his awards show debut with Please Stay. The crescendoing – including multiple onstage flips – and falsetto-heavy performance echoed Shawn Mendes, who returned from a public hiatus with his new song Nobody Knows.
Lenny Kravitz provided a masterclass in rock star charisma with a three-song medley, while fellow veterans LL Cool J and Public Enemy joined forces for a medley of old-school hits to honor the groundbreaking hip-hop label Def Jam.
But the night, as usual, belonged to Swift, who capped off the evening by becoming the only artist to ever win the night’s top award – video of the year – five times. She shouted out “my boyfriend, Travis” to deafening screams. “Everything this man touches turns to happiness and fun and magic, so I want to thank him for adding that to our shoot.”
To the fans, “I’m always trying to figure out a way to say thank you to you for making my life what it is,” she concluded, before following up on her endorsement of Kamala Harris for US president: “If you are over 18, please register to vote for something else that’s very important.”
