Taylor Swift wins Artiste of the Year for Anti Hero u Shakira bags Video Vanguard Award
Taylor Swift took home the top prize at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards for her Anti-Hero music video on a night full of surprises.
“This is unbelievable. The fact that this is a fan-voted award means so much to me,” Swift said in her acceptance speech.
“I can’t believe it was a year ago that I announced the Midnights’ album.” The show, held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, was Swift’s from nearly the beginning. The night’s first presenters were none other than NSYNC, who reunited to hand the best pop video award to Swift.
In coordinating suits, Justin Timberlake, Joey Fatone, Lance Bass, Chris Kirkpatrick and JC Chasez shared the stage with Swift. Bass handed her a friendship bracelet, just as fans do at the superstar’s shows.
The night’s top nominee later returned to the stage to pick up the song of the year trophy for Anti-Hero and also the best direction award.
Swift took home nine of the 11 awards she was up for, including artist of the year in a category made up entirely of women nominees for the first time in VMA history.
Her Karma (Remix) collaborator, Ice Spice, won best new artist. ‘Oh my God, this is so cool,’ she said.
New music was abundant throughout the show.
Host Nicki Minaj performed her latest single, the dreamy Last Time I Saw You before jumping into a brand-new tease of a fiery new trap cut from her highly-anticipated Pink Friday 2 album.
K-pop boy band Tomorrow X Together and Brazilian superstar Anitta premiered their new collaboration, the glossy retro-pop of Back for More. Another K-pop group, Stray Kids, brought S-Class to the stage, regional Mexicana star Peso Pluma performed ‘Lady Gaga’ and reggaetonera Karol G delivered Oki Doki and Ta OK (remix). Comedian Tiffany Haddish presented the award for Best Afrobeats in the category’s inaugural year, given to Rema and Selena Gomez for their massive hit Calm Down.
Colombian icon Shakira received the Video Vanguard Award and performed an incredible bilingual medley of her decades of hits – She Wolf, her collaboration with Rauw Alejandro Te Felicito, the viral, record-breaking ‘Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53’ with Bizarrap among them – in a set introduced by her Hips Don’t Lie collaborator Wyclef Jean.
“This is for you my people, my Latin American people, inside and outside this country,” she said in Spanish.
She also took home the award for best collaboration for TQG, her song with Karol G. The duo gave their acceptance speech entirely in Spanish.
Diddy received the Global Icon Award from Mary J Blige and his daughter Chance Combs. He is third recipient of the award, following the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2022 and the Foo Fighters in 2021.
The legendary rapper also performed at the VMAs for the first time since 2005. It was an incredible collection of some of his biggest hits like Bad Boy for Life and Mo Money Mo Problems, joined by some of his greatest collaborators: Yung Miami, Keyshia Cole, and sweetest of all, his son, King Combs.
Olivia Rodrigo brought her Vampire music video set to the stage, before launching into her cheeky pop-punk single Get Him Back! Between the two tracks, snippets of her sold singles played aloud – at the same moment, she was rushed from the staged in a pre-planned ‘malfunction,’ further mirroring the Vampire video and symbolising a move from her first record to her second.
The live sets were many: Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion brought ‘Bongos’ to life with big choreography; Demi Lovato played a rock n’ roll medley of her biggest hits: Heart Attack, into Sorry Not Sorry, Cool for the Summer before the best K-pop award was given to Stray Kids.
Later, Anitta would win the ‘best Latin’ award for the second year in a row, delivering one of the more endearing acceptance speeches of the night – “I wanna thank myself,” she laughed. “Because I work so hard!” French Montana used his position as best R&B presenter alongside Ashanti to draw attention to Morocco earthquake relief, spotlighting a relief fund that he said he would personally donate to. Montana grew up in Morocco.
Near the end of the show, the MTV Video Music Awards celebrated 50 years of hip-hop with a star-studded finale performance. (AP)