Swift took home the award for video of the year, and Katy Perry was honoured with a lifetime achievement award while attending a programme that awarded nearly all of its accolades to female musicians.
Taylor Swift has once again dominated the MTV Video Music Awards, becoming the most awarded solo artist in the history of the VMAs. She won seven categories, including the most prestigious award of the evening, which was for video of the year.
Swift completed the evening by breaking Beyoncé’s record for most nominations received by a solo artist by winning her 30th Video Music Awards. Swift had already been the most nominated artist at the beginning of the evening. The 25 Video Music Awards that Beyoncé has won as a solo artist, two with Destiny’s Child, and two with Jay-Z as the Carters are all hers.
After accepting the first of seven awards on Wednesday, which was for best collaboration with Post Malone for their duet “Fortnight,” the singer, who is 34 years old, began the evening by recognising the September 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
“As I awoke this morning in New York on September 11th, I cannot help but reflect on the events that transpired twenty-three years ago,” she remarked. I would want to express my deepest condolences to all those who have suffered the loss of a loved one, as well as to all those who have left us. In addition, everything that takes place tonight is a consequence of it.”
Megan Thee Stallion served as the event’s host and presided over the 40th anniversary of the Video Music Awards, also known as “the Voluptuous Megan Award,” at the UBS Arena on Long Island. In addition to paying tribute to earlier highlights from the Video Music Awards, such as Britney Spears’ I’m a Slave 4 U live snake costume, the host also performed songs with the Japanese rapper Yuki Chiba, including Boa, Hiss, and Mamushi. These songs were performed in collaboration with Yuki Chiba.
Women were victorious in the 2024 Video Music Awards, as a diverse group of female performers from around the world dominated the airtime. In spite of the fact that Eminem began the ceremony with a large number of Slim Shady impersonators, which was a reflection of his performance at the Video Music Awards in 2000, the women were the ones who ended up winning.
During her performance of Espresso, which was presented with the title of song of the year, she made fun of a bunch of astronauts. Singing “Please Please Please” on a sparkly swing, kissing an extraterrestrial for Taste, and performing Espresso were all things that Sabrina Carpenter, who was a star on the show Ascendant, featured in her performance.
In the moment that Carpenter was accepting her very first Video Music Awards, she made the following remark: “This is really special.” “I just want to express how thankful I am to have the most incredible fans in the entire world, and I want to thank you for that, espresso.”
Anitta, a Brazilian musician, won the award for best Latin for her song Mil Veces, while Lisa, the resident rapper of Blackpink, won the prize for best K-pop for her solo single Rockstar. Both of these awards were presented to Lisa.
Tyla, a South African musician, won the best Afrobeats category despite the fact that male artists predominate in it thanks to her breakout song “Water.” “The global influence that Water has on the globe really illustrates that African music can be mainstream music, too,” Tyla noted, despite the fact that she observed that the victory was “bittersweet” owing to the fact that “there’s a tendency to put all African musicians under Afrobeats because of the competition.” There is a wide variety of styles in African music. We are not only presenting a compilation of Afrobeats here.
Katy Perry was the recipient of the Video Vanguard Award, which is the night’s lifetime achievement reward, for the seventh year in a row. This year, Katy Perry was the beneficiary of this honour. Before she sang a medley of her most popular songs, including Dark Horse, ET, California Gurls, Teenage Dream, I Kissed a Girl, and Firework, her husband, the actor Orlando Bloom, welcomed her to the audience onstage.
Perry said, “There are so many things that have to align in order to have a long and successful career as an artist.” This statement indicated that she was able to rise beyond the criticism that was directed towards Woman’s World. In the past ten years, there have been no accidents.
Perry expressed her gratitude to 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.” MySpace was also mentioned.
When she proceeded, she said, “I am excited when I look around music today and I see all of the amazing young artists who are operating with confidence, agency, vulnerability, and authenticity.” “I have learnt to block out the noise that every single artist has to constantly fight, especially women,” she said. “This is one of the most important reasons I am standing here right now.”
The title of best new artist was bestowed upon Chappell Roan, who is quickly becoming a prominent figure in the music industry. The expression of thanks that she conveyed was directed towards “all the drag artists who inspire me” as well as “queer and trans people that fuel pop.”
In the next part of her performance, the Missouri native continued by reading from her journal while she was currently on stage. “And to all of the queer kids in the Midwest watching right now, I see you and I understand you, because I’m one of you,” she added in the following paragraph. You should also never let someone tell you that you are unable to be exactly who you want to be, you jerk! This is something you should never let happen to you!
Benson Boone, a singer-songwriter who rose to notoriety on TikTok and is currently 22 years old, was also the recipient of a nomination for the same prize as Roan. On the awards presentation, he made his first appearance with the song “Please Stay.” The crescendoing, which involved a number of onstage flips, and the performance that featured a major emphasis on falsetto were reminiscent of Shawn Mendes, who had only recently returned to the public eye with his new song titled Nobody Knows at the time.
Lenny Kravitz performed a three-song medley that was a textbook in rock star appeal. Meanwhile, fellow rock stars LL Cool J and Public Enemy collaborated on a mix of old-school songs to pay tribute to the legendary hip-hop label Def Jam.
On the other hand, Taylor Swift dominated the event and, as is customary for her, finished the evening by becoming the first artist in history to ever win the night’s most coveted award, video of the year, five times. As she cried out, “My boyfriend, Travis,” she caused sounds that were intolerable to listen to. In light of the fact that everything that this man touches is transformed into joy, laughter, and enchantment, I would want to convey my gratitude to him for including that into our session.
She continued by saying, “I’m always trying to figure out a way to say thank you to you for making my life what it is.” She then went on to elaborate on her support for Kamala Harris’s candidature for the presidency of the United States of America, saying, “If you are over the age of 18, please register to vote for something else that is very important.”