MTV VMAs recap: Taylor Swift makes history, Chappell and Sabrina among winners

Music’s most iconic night has come to an end for another year — but not without a few major moments. The evening kicked off with Eminem’s opening performance and closed with host Megan Thee Stallion presenting the biggest award of the night to Taylor Swift.

Miss Americana became the most awarded artist in VMAs history with an astonishing 30 wins throughout her career, surpassing previous record-holder Beyoncé. Swift began her sweep with the very first presented award of the night — Best Collaboration for Fortnight with Post Malone. This year’s VMAs were held on the 23rd anniversary of 9/11 and Swift made sure to pay her respects, telling the audience during her acceptance speech: “Waking up this morning in New York on September 11th, I’ve just been thinking about what happened 23 years ago. Everyone who lost a loved one and everyone that we lost. That is the most important thing today.”

Swift went on to win Artist of the Year and also took home Video of the Year where she took an opportunity to encourage viewers of age to vote in the upcoming Presidential election, one day after endorsing Kamala Harris. She ended her speech by shouting out boyfriend Travis Kelce who she described by saying “anything this man touches turns into happiness, fun and magic.” Swift was the biggest winner of the night — taking home 7 moonmen.

In other VMA moments, Katy Perry was honored with the coveted Michael Jackson Vanguard Award — which was presented to her by Orlando Bloom and was accompanied by a greatest hits medley, including smashes like California Gurls, Firework and I Kissed A Girl.

Tyla took home her very first VMA for her global hit Water, for which she delivered a speech about the categorization of Afrobeats in music award shows: “I know there's a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats. Even though Afrobeats has run things and has opened so many doors for us, African music is so diverse.”

Additionally, the global superstar also made history by becoming the first South African female artist to win an MTV Video Music Award.

The evening culminated with two performances from Hot Girl coach (today, host) Megan Thee Stallion who also took home awards for Best Trending Video with MAMUSHI and Best Art Direction for BOA.

Our host rocked the stage with MAMUSHI, bringing out Yuki Chiba as a surprise guest, and her own rendition of Queen’s classic We Will Rock You.

BLACKPINK’s Lisa delivered a performance of her latest hits New Woman and Rockstar — for which she also took home the Best K-Pop award and made history as the first soloist to win the category twice. (No other soloist has ever won)

Chappell Roan had quite a night — from her Joan of Arc-inspired performance of Good Luck, Babe! to her big win — she was clearly one of the evening’s highlights. The singer became a VMA winner for Best New Artist which she emotionally accepted by dedicating the trophy to the drag queens who have inspired her and “all the queer, trans people who inspire pop.”

Another new VMA winner was Sabrina Carpenter, who dominated the summer and got her dues at tonight’s ceremony. Espresso took the award for Song of the Year and Carpenter graciously accepted the honor by closing her speech with: “And thank you to that’s that me Espresso!”

Earlier in the evening, Carpenter had taken the stage to perform her three consecutive hits Espresso, Please Please Please and Taste — a performance that turned heads when Carpenter began making out with an alien onstage.

Among the other winners at the 2024 VMAs were Ariana Grande’s we can’t be friends (wait for your love) for Best Cinematography, SZA’s Snooze for Best R&B, Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For? in Video For Good, Mil Veces by Anitta for Best Latin, SEVENTEEN in Best Group, LE SSERAFIM for Push Performance of the Year, and many more.

Check out the full winner list: