MTV awards LIVE updates: Taylor Swift sweeps the MTV VMAs with nine wins including best song and video (2024)

1. It ran at breakneck speed
It aired for about three hours, but boy did they pack the performances in. With more than 20 acts, there were some blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearances, such as Renee Rapp, and some marathon sequences, like Shakira and Diddy (not that any millennial was complaining). Yet, they didn’t even get through all the awards, ending the livestream with 13 categories still unannounced.
All in all, it’s an award show that tends to bite off more than it can chew, and is certainly not optimised for bathroom breaks.

2. Olivia Rodrigo is a performance beast
Everyone seems to be talking about Rodrigo’s new album Guts right now, so it makes sense that the VMAs would open with her. Her performance of Get Him Back while surrounded by a line of Olivia look-a-likes was both entertaining and slightly disturbing. In fact, it was such a killer act that most of us temporarily forgot about her alleged beef with Taylor Swift.

3. A baffling Afrobeats award
This year marked the first Afrobeats award, so everyone’s collective “huh?” when Selena Gomez took to the stage was understandable. She won the trophy for her collaboration with Nigerian rapper Rema, but you could see the discomfort on her face while they accepted the award. She could not get off of there fast enough.

4. Taylor Swift dominated awards and POV cameras
She won an array of awards, the hearts of the people and the attention of the cameras. It seemed like every time the livestream switched to a shot of the audience, Taylor Swift dominated the screen – dancing, singing along, or kind of just sitting there. Yes, she’s a legendary pop star, but perhaps give someone else a moment in the spotlight next year?

5. Fall Out Boy feat. Billy Joel
We all knew it was coming, yet it was better than we could have ever imagined. Fall Out Boy’s updated rendition of Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire! was equally politically aware as it was fun. I mean, they even had the cojones to call out the death of MTV – at the MTV awards! We salute you, Fall Out Boy.

We appreciate MTV speeding along the ceremony so we didn’t have to sit through announcements for categories like “best visual effects”. But, they’re still listing winners and, essentially, it’s more for Taylor Swift.

Alongside her video of the year, song of the year, best pop and best direction, Taylor claimed album of the year, artist of the year, best visual effects, best cinematography and best summer tour, bringing her total on the night to nine wins.

According to Rolling Stone, that ties for the record for most wins in one night and sends her to second-most overall wins all up with 23 VMAs, just shy of Beyonce’s record 26.

As LL Cool J put it, the video of the year award is the crown jewel of the VMAs. For the second year in a row, that crown goes to Taylor Swift for her banger Anti-Hero – a track that has hoovered up awards throughout the night. This was Swift’s fourth award of the night having already nabbed the awards for best song, pop and direction.

“This is unbelievable,” Swift said. “I just want to say that the fact that this is a fan-voted award means so much to me. Based on the memories that we’ve made recently – I’ve just been on a tour that has been the most exhilarating experience and we’re not even halfway done.

“All I have to say tonight is thank you.”

Believe it or not, it has already been a year since Swift announced her Midnights album to an adoring VMAs crowd after winning video of the year for All Too Well (10 minute version) (Taylor’s version) (from The Vault). It really is a full-circle moment.

It’s time for MTV’s tribute to hip-hop’s 50th birthday – unlike a lot of mainstream institutions, the network has been championing hip-hop for at least a chunk of that time, largely through its classic ’90s video series Yo MTV Raps! – and up first is Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five doing 1982’s The Message. Then we get Doug E. Fresh making the music with his mouth, alongside the legend Slick Rick. We quickly jump to Nicki Minaj doing her early jam Itty Bitty Piggy, before bringing out Lil Wayne, who destroys his classic A Milli.

We jump back to 1987 for LL Cool J’s I’m Bad, followed by his 1990 smash Mama Said Knock You Out. And then he brings out DMC from Run DMC for a verse on Rock Box, the first hip-hop video MTV ever aired way back in 1984, and a group performance of Walk This Way. “Bacardi Rum celebrates 50 years of hip-hop,” a voiceover announces as soon as it’s over. Could’ve let the artists have the last word, but sure.

If Australian country musician Morgan Evans is watching the VMAs, he might wanna switch channels right now. Because here’s his ex-wife, US country star Kelsea Ballerini, going scorched earth.

Back in February, Ballerini surprise dropped a short film to promote her sudden D-I-V-O-R-C-E EP, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, and she’s brought the same spirit to MTV’s stage. “We got along real nice, but when I left town, did you hate me?” she belts on Penthouse, leading the whole room in a singalong, essentially against Morgan and exes.

There’s even a hugely dramatic pause where she points at the camera, holds silence for an eternity, and berates her ex because he “got half”. Wow, send prayers.

Dove Cameron is on stage to “pass on the torch” to this year’s best new artist, voted on by viewers. And the winner is Ice Spice, which is 100 per cent correct.

The New York rapper has had a huge year, racking up hit features alongside Taylor Swift, PinkPantheress and Nicki Minaj.

“Oh my god, this is so cool,” she says, thanking her “munchkin” stans.“Shoutout the Bronx!” she adds.

Who knew winning Eurovision would catapult this Italian rock band to the VMAs’ main stage?

Either way, they made themselves feel right at home while belting out Honey (Are U Coming?), with a shirtless Damiano David picking up one of the cameras to film the crowd and crew on stage. The camera people can go home now, I guess?

Nicki Minaj, who is technically the emcee of the night (though we haven’t seen heaps of her yet), presented this year’s award for best direction, but first had to take a moment to tell the crowd to “shut the f--- up”.

Once everyone quietened down, the trophy went to the one and only Taylor Swift for her direction in Anti-Hero – once again proving she really can do it all.

“That’s my favourite Sagittarius over there,” Swift said, pointing to Minaj before turning to the crowd. “If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about direction, it’s that it’s absolutely a team sport, so I brought my team with me tonight.”

Humble and successful, what a legend. The only question now is when she’ll get working on a feature film.