Taylor Swift Dominates at MTV Video Music Awards

She won 9 of the 11 awards she was nominated for
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 13, 2023 12:00 AM CDT
Taylor Swift Dominates at MTV VMAs
Taylor Swift, center, winner of the award for song of the year for "Anti-Hero", walks off stage with Timbaland, left, and Nelly Furtado during the MTV Video Music Awards on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.   (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

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, the AP reports. 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. "You're pop personified," she told the group.

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. "I just want to thank my munchkins." 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.

As much as Swift dominated, the VMAs centered on music's global power. 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 "Tá 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."

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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. "MTV, thank you for being such a big part of my career since I was only 18 years old," Shakira said, also thanking her parents and her children, who she brought to the show. 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.

(More MTV Video Music Awards stories.)

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