Taylor Swift, Jack Harlow, and Harry Styles won big at the recently concluded 2022 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) held on Sunday, August 28, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Jack, who was one of the hosts of the show along with fellow rappers LL Cool J and Nicki Minaj, won the most awards for the night with four wins, including Best Collaboration, Best Art Direction, and Best Visual Effects for his song “Industry Baby” with Lil Nas X, and Song of Summer for his single “First Class.”
Meanwhile, Harry won three awards, including Best Pop and Best Cinematography for his song “As It Was,” and Album of the Year for his latest album, Harry’s House.
Taylor won the coveted Video of the Year award for “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault),” through her critically acclaimed short film, All Too Well: The Short Film. The short film also won Best Longform Video and Best Direction. During her acceptance speech, Taylor announced the release date of her next album, Midnights.
“I’m just so proud of what we made and I know with 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 re-record my albums 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 gonna 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,” Taylor said.
Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny also bagged an award during the highly-anticipated event. He received the Artist of the Year award after performing his song “Tití Me Preguntó” at Yankee Stadium in New York during his World’s Hottest Tour concert. The rapper received his trophy from Los Angeles Lakers player Carmelo Anthony.
K-Pop girl group Blackpink won Best Metaverse Performance for their virtual in-game concert BLACKPINK The Virtual held via PUBG Mobile.
Meanwhile, Blackpink member Lisa made history when she won Best K-Pop with her song “Lalisa,” ending BTS‘s three-year winning streak in the category and making her the first solo K-Pop artist to ever win a VMA award.
BTS, on the other hand, received the award for Group of the Year for the fourth consecutive time.
Brazilian singer Anitta also made history after winning the award for Best Latin with her single “Evolver.” It made her the first Brazilian artist ever to win an award at the VMAs.
“I just want to say, for whoever doesn’t know this, tonight, the history, the first time of Brazil here. It’s the first time my country has even been awarded like that, and I just wanna say thank you to my family and my fans, and tonight, I performed here a rhythm that for many years in my country was considered a crime. I was born and raised in the ghetto of Brazil, and for whoever who was born there, we never would think this was possible,” the singer said in her acceptance speech.
Italian rock band Måneskin, who became instant worldwide sensations after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021, won Best Alternative for their song “I Wanna Be Your Slave.” The band also made their VMAs debut with a performance of their latest single “Supermodel.”
Two artists were given special awards during the show. Aside from winning Best Hip Hop with her single “Do We Have A Problem?” alongside Lil Baby, Nicki was honored with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, who also won Best Rock with their song “Black Summer,” received the Global Icon Award.
Other winners include Billie Eilish (who won Song of the Year with “Happier Than Ever”), Dove Cameron (who received the Best New Artist award), Seventeen (who won Push Performance of the Year with their song “Rock With You”), The Weeknd (who won the award for Best R&B with his single “Out of Time”), Lizzo (who won the award for Video for Good with “About Damn Time”), Doja Cat (who received the Best Choreography award for “Woman”) and Rosalía (who won Best Editing for her song “Saoko”).
