Taylor Swift took home the top prize at the Video Music Awards Sunday (August 28th) night and rewarded fans for their support.
During her acceptance speech for Video of The Year, the singer announced that her next album will drop on October 21st. In addition to the coveted Video of The Year prize, “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) won Best Long Form Video and Best Direction.
Other big winners for the night included the Red Hot Chili Peppers who were honored with both the Global Icon Award and Best Rock and Nicki Minaj who performed, co-hosted and won both Best Hip Hop and the Video Vanguard Award.
Minaj received a standing ovation for her career-spanning medley including “Roman's Revenge,” “Monster,” “Beez in the Trap,” “Chun-Li,” “Moment 4 Life,” “Super Bass,” “Anaconda,” and “Super Freaky Girl.”
In a surprising move, Johnny Depp made his first post-trial appearance as the virtual MTV Moonman in post-commercial sequences, jokingly announcing that he “needed the work.”
Other Notable Highlights:
- Presenter DJ Khaled struggled to read the propter before giving up, whipping his glasses off, and declaring, “I gotta be me.”
- BLACKPINK made their VMA debut, performing “Pink Venom” and Lisa became the first solo artist to win best K-Pop. The rest of the group supportively stood up and flashed heart symbols as she made her acceptance speech.
- Harry Styles could not accept his Moonman trophy in person because he was performing in New York City at Madison Square Garden.
- Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith dedicated their Global Icon Award win to “brother” Taylor Hawkins.
- Lizzo revealed that she doesn’t “clap back” at her haters “cause b*tch, I’m winning!”
- Kane Brown made his VMA debut with a performance of “Grand” from Fort Lee, New Jersey. He is the first county artist to perform at MTV’s award show.
- Anitta had her first ever VMA performance and became the first Brazilian artist to ever win a VMA.
- Bad Bunny won Artist Of The Year as he took the stage at Yankee Stadium. He appeared to kiss a male dancer during his live performance of “Tití Me Preguntó”.
Winners:
- GLOBAL ICON AWARD: Red Hot Chili Peppers
- VIDEO VANGUARD AWARD: Nicki Minaj
- VIDEO OF THE YEAR: Taylor Swift – “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)”
- BEST NEW ARTIST: Dove Cameron
- BEST ROCK: Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Black Summer”
- ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Bad Bunny
- SONG OF THE SUMMER: Jack Harlow – “First Class”
- BETS HIP-HOP: Nicki Minaj ft. Lil Baby – “Do We Have A Problem?”
- BEST LATIN: Anitta – “Envolver”
- VIDEO FOR GOOD: Lizzo – “About Damn Time”
- BEST K-POP: LISA – “LALISA”
- BEST ALBUM: Harry Styles – Harry’s House
- BEST LONGFORM VIDEO: Taylor Swift – “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)”
- BEST COLLABORATION: Lil Nas X, Jack Harlow – “INDUSTRY BABY”
- PUSH PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR: December 2021: SEVENTEEN – “Rock With You”
- BEST METAVERSE PERFORMANCE: BLACKPINK The Virtual | PUBG
- BEST ALTERNATIVE: Måneskin – “I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE”
- SONG OF THE YEAR: Billie Eilish – “Happier Than Ever”
- BEST POP: Harry Styles – “As It Was”
- BEST R&B: The Weeknd – “Out Of Time”
- BEST CINEMATOGRPAHY: Harry Styles – “As It Was”
- BEST DIRECTION: Taylor Swift – “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)”
- BEST ART DIRECTION: Lil Nas X, Jack Harlow – “INDUSTRY BABY”
- BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Lil Nas X, Jack Harlow – “INDUSTRY BABY”
- BEST CHOREOGRAPHY: Doja Cat – “Woman”
- BEST EDITING: ROSALÍA – “SAOKO”
- GROUP OF THE YEAR: BTS
Boadcast Audio:
In clip one, Dove Cameron Wins Best New Artist.
- “Thank you so much. I'm so floored, I'm so moved. This is so wild to be here with so many artists, these are some of my favorite artists up here. This year has been so wild and I have no explanation for it except that I have you guys to thank. I know that. I want to dedicate this to all of the queer kids out there, who don't feel like they can take up space and inhabit the fullness of who they are, thank you for getting an overtly queer song onto maintstream radio. Thank you for supporting me as the person and the artist that I am. I hope that in that way you have also given that same privilege to yourself. I love you so much, thank you MTV, thank you Columbia Records, thank you guys, thank you, thank you.” (1:00 OC: . . .thank you, thank you.)
In clip two, Johnny Depp appears as Moonman.
- “You know what? I needed the work.”
In clip three, Lil Nas X accepts Best Collab.
- “(Lil Nas X) And this one is for the champions. (Jack) Yo, I know we both won this award but I want to say take a minute to say thank you to Nas. Obviously this song started with him, so I am super grateful for the opportunity, the chance… I told you. (Lil Nas X) Wow. I am up here like, half naked, but, look, I want to say something. I really appreciate you, MTV, you know, I worked really hard last year, you know, me and my boy Jack. Thank you for the love, and hopefully I am back up here and I have something better to say. But I love y'all and I'll see you all on the Montero tour.” (1:21 OC: . . .the Montero tour.)
In clip four, Lizzo addressed the press during acceptance speech for Video For Good.
- “And now, to the… that got something to say about me in this press. You know what? I'm not going to say nothing. They be like, Lizzo, why don't you clap back? Why don't you clap back? Because… I am winning. Big… be winning… That's revenge. It's your paper. Say less.”
In clip five, More Weird Johnny Depp.
- “I want you guys to know that I'm available for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, bat mitzvahs, weddings, wakes, any old thing you need. Anything. You name it. So… oh, I'm also a dentist.”
In clip six, Nicki Minaj Speech.
- “Let me tell you something, I don't want, I don't want them to start rolling the music on me, but I never, ever in my life have written a speech, and today, I jotted, like, something down on my phone, and I give my phone to Joe, and he is not up here with it, which is sad, because now I don't remember stuff. Well, first of all, I want to say to everyone in here, God bless you and thank you. Give it to me. Where is it? Who has it, Joe? Oh.”
In clip seven, Nicki Minaj wins Best HipHop.
- “Okay, you guys, I want to make this really quick. Now, earlier I was talking about artists who worked with me at the beginning stage of my career, and I left a few people out, going to name them really quick. Will I Am, Fergie, Taylor Swift who had a huge part in Super Bass, Elton John, an icon, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Puffy… I've got to shout out New York City. All the artists that have helped put up on the map from the beginning. Salt N Pepa, Kind N Play, Nas, 50, LL, G Unit, but this award is for this, so I want to thank Lil Baby. And P. Oh, and tonight, and someone special to me, if you guys know, you know, Fendi, thank you for being there for me, for believing in me and seeing something in me when no one else did. I love you, thank you. And you guys, the Barbz voted, so this is for the Barbz.” (1:26 OC: . . .is for the Barbz.)
In clip eight, RHCP Global Icon Award speech.
- “(Anthony) I did want to thank the sassy mistress known as MTV for supporting us for a thousand years and more, I also want to think planet Earth and the people of planet Earth for listening and caring and paying attention to what we do. It's a blessing. But really, really, really, I want to thank Flea and John and Chad Smith, Chad… Gaylord Smith, for giving me a purpose in my life for the last 40 years, I would have been a freeloading disaster in space if not for these boys, thank you, boys come up for giving me something to do with my life. (Chad) Hey, everybody. We try to make some cool visual art to go to our music, and thank you MTV for supporting it for all these years. It's a real honor to be here. In front of you guys. Thank you so much. There is another musical icon, global icon, and his name is my brother, Taylor Hawkins, and I want to dedicate this to Taylor and his family. I love him and I miss him every day. Play on, Hawk, play on. (Flea) …Hawk. To my bandmates, I love you so much. To my wife, melody, I love you. To my children, Sonny and Clara, I love you. To everyone of you out there watching on TV, I love you. I love cockroaches and dirt and every human being in the… and birds in the sky and love, and everything that isn't love is cowardice, I love you, thank you so much for your support, thank you.” (2:20 OC: . . .your support, thank you.)
In clip nine, Taylor Swift accepts Best Longform Video.
- “Before this I had directed and written my music videos but I had never made a short film before, and so I want to first start out by saying thank you to Sadie Sink. Dylan o'Brien. My amazing cinematographer. My producer. And the rest of our incredible crew for trusting me, for lending me their brilliance, their talent, their time. We put our entire hearts into this, trying to make something that might be worthy of the love that you, the fans, have shown this song. Thank you for this beautiful indication that we did something right. Love you guys.”
In clip ten, Taylor Swift thanks fans Announces New Album.
- “I'm so honored to have been recognized alongside such amazing artists and directors in this category, and I just want to say I am so heartened by the fact that, for the first time in VMA history, four of the directors nominated in this video of the year category are women. We love you. You guys, I'm just so proud of what we made, and I now that every second of this moment that we wouldn't have been able to make this short film if it weren't for you, the fans. Because I wouldn't be able to rerecord my album if it weren't for you. You emboldened me to do that. And I had sort of made up my mind that if you were going to be this generous and give us this… I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you… that my brand new album comes out October 21st. And I will tell you more at midnight.” (1:44 OC: . . .more at midnight.)
