Taylor Swift emerged as the biggest winner of the night at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, taking home nine trophies.
The 33-year-old pop superstar dominated the ceremony at the Prudential Centre in Newark, New Jersey, collecting the evening’s top prize – video of the year – for her Midnights album track Anti-Hero, as well as artist of the year, best pop video, and song of the year.
Swift returned to the VMAs stage to collect award after award, 14 years after the infamous incident when Kanye West interrupted her as she was accepting the Best Female Video award to say US singer Beyonce “had one of the best videos of all time”.
Collecting the top award for video of the year at the end of the live show on Tuesday, Swift said: “This is unbelievable. The fact this is a fan-voted award means so much to me.”
Swift won several other awards, including Best Direction, Cinematography, and Visual Effects, as well as the Show of the Summer trophy.
A memorable moment came during the first presentation of the night when she accepted the award for best pop video from reunited boyband NSYNC and questioned them on their future music plans.
The ceremony was hosted by Nicki Minaj, who also performed and won the best hip-hop category for Super Freaky Girl.
US rapper Diddy, real name Sean Combs, picked up the Global Icon Award from his daughter, Chance Combs, and Mary J Blige, and also performed some of his biggest hits.
He said: “This is for 30 years. I pray to God that you get to do what you love for 30 years.”
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Shakira also performed a medley of hits as she collected the Video Vanguard Award, thanking her family and fans in a speech which switched between English and her native Spanish.
She said: “I want to share this award with my fans who always, always support me through thick and thin. Thank you so much for being my army and helping me fight all my battles.”
The Colombian star and Karol G gave their acceptance speech entirely in Spanish as they picked up the award for best collaboration for TQG.
Ice Spice thanked her “munchkins” after being named Best New Artist, while Rema and Selena Gomez won the inaugural Best Afrobeats category with Calm Down.
Korea enjoyed a successful evening with Blackpink named Group of the Year, Stray Kids winning the best K-pop award for S-Class, and fellow boy band Tomorrow X Together taking the Performance of the Year trophy and performing with Brazilian star Anitta, who took home the Best Latin Award for the second year.
There was also success for Italy as former Eurovision winner Maneskin received the Best Rock award for The Loneliest.
Lil Wayne opened the show, while other performers included Olivia Rodrigo, Cardi B, and Megan Thee Stallion.
The awards celebrated 50 years of hip-hop with a finale which included Minaj, LL Cool J, DMC of Run DMC, and Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five performing The Message.
By Ellie Iorizzo and Rob Freeman, PA
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