Taylor Swift won four awards during the star-studded ceremony presented by Rita Ora and Taika Waititi, while Harry Styles won only one, for best live performance.
Taylor Swift dominated this year’s MTV Europe Music Awards, winning four of the six trophies for which she was nominated: best artist, best video, best pop, and best long-form video.
There were great hopes for some of the British artists nominated for honors, including Adele, Ed Sheeran, and Harry Styles, who topped the nominations; however, Taylor Swift proved to be the MTV EMAs queen.
The 32-year-old megastar, who recently re-recorded some of her earliest hits to regain control of her work, praised her legion of fans (known as Swifties) as she accepted each award, expressing gratitude for their unwavering support.
When presented with the award for best artist by Baywatch’s David Hasselhoff, Taylor Swift told the audience of shouting fans, “You have no clue how much it means to me to do this professionally…
“I do not take that for granted for a single second. I cannot believe that I get to do this for a living because of how much I adore you. Thank you much.”
The annual international music awards, which took place in Dusseldorf, Germany, and were hosted by the celebrity power couple Rita Ora and Taika Waititi, also saw Nicki Minaj, Muse, and Gorillaz win accolades in 20 gender-neutral categories.
Stormzy, who deviated from his usual style and sang his song Fire Babe for the first time on television, was among the performers, along with Lewis Capaldi, Bebe Rexha, and Eurovision champions Kalush Orchestra.
Sam Ryder, a British TikTok sensation and Eurovision runner-up, presented the award for outstanding collaboration to French DJ David Guetta and American superstar Bebe Rexha. Guetta won best electronic act as well.
There was even a surprise message from Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise introducing OneRepublic’s Top Gun: Maverick single I Ain’t Worried.
Swift continued her winning streak by accepting the award for best long-form video, one of two new categories this year, from singer-songwriter and son of the late John Lennon, Julian Lennon.
As she ascended the stage, Swift once more thanked her fans for their unwavering support, telling them, “You’re the reason I’ve ever accomplished anything.”
She explained, “I’ve been writing and directing music videos for a long time, but this was my first short film, and I learned so much about myself about how filmmaking can be a natural extension of my songwriting.”
Fans assumed that the song was about Swift’s breakup with actor Jake Gyllenhaal, causing the music video to go viral earlier this year.
Swift told supporters, “This rarely happened,” explaining that when she first released the song 10 years ago, it was not a single and there was no accompanying video.
She continued, “I can only explain this by claiming the fans willed it to occur.” I shall never cease to appreciate your generosity.”
Ahead of this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, the video also won the prestigious award for video of the year.
Swift joked as she was presented with the award for best pop: “You have to wear a lot of sequins and learn choreography, which is extremely difficult.”
Following the release of her new album Midnights – the year’s fastest-selling record – she has dominated the global charts in recent weeks.
Nicki Minaj won the award for best song for Super Freaky Girl, as well as the prize for best hip hop act.
Even though he had the most nominations (seven), former One Direction star Harry Styles only won one award that evening for best live performance. He was unable to collect his prize in person.
Muse, who began the show with their new song Will of the People, won the award for a best rock act.
Matt Bellamy, the lead singer of Muse, told the MTV audience, “We’d like to dedicate this entire album to the people of Ukraine and the women in Iran who are fighting for their freedom tonight.”
Gorillaz, lead by Damon Albarn of Blur, won best alternative band, while Sam Smith won the best video for a song.
It was also a good night for K-pop, with South Korean boyband Seventeen winning best new act and best push, Blackpink winning best metaverse performance (the second new category of the evening), and one of the band’s members, Lisa, winning best K-pop act, and BTS winning biggest fans.
The award for best Latin performer went to Anitta, while the award for best R&B performer went to Chloe, a star from the United States.
