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MTV VMAs 2023

Shakira stuns, Taylor Swift dominates with record-breaking wins

Showtime Desk
13 Sep 2023 18:24:51 | Update: 13 Sep 2023 18:24:51
Shakira stuns, Taylor Swift dominates with record-breaking wins
— AFP Photo

Shakira crowd-surfed her way to a lifetime achievement prize at the MTV Video Music Awards, as she performed a career-spanning medley of hits.

The Colombian star put on a spectacular show that saw her dance with knives, writhe in a fake cave and play a fiery guitar solo during Objection (Tango).

Presenting her award, Wyclef Jean said: "Latin music would not be the global force that it is without Shakira."

Taylor Swift was the night's other big winner, earning nine Moon Man trophies.

The star won in all but two of the categories where she was nominated, including the night's biggest award - video of the year - in recognition of the self-directed promo for Anti-Hero, reports BBC.

She is the first artist to win video of the year twice in a row, and extended her record for the most wins in that category to four - after previously winning for Bad Blood, You Need to Calm Down and All Too Well: The Short Film.

The star, who is in the middle of the first $1bn stadium tour in history, also took home prizes for song of the year, best pop, best direction, best cinematography and best visual effects, all for Anti-Hero,

She was also awarded album of the year for Midnights, plus artist of the year and show of the summer.

The 33-year-old dedicated her wins to the art of songwriting.

"I love making pop music, I love making pop music videos, I also love making country," she told a star-studded crowd at New Jersey's Prudential Center.

Other winners on the night included rapper Ice Spice, who took home best new artist, and K-pop group Blackpink, who became the first girl band to pick up best group since TLC 24 years ago.

It's the fifth time in a row that a South Korean band has won the prize, with Blackpink taking the place of boy band BTS, who are currently on hiatus.

However, BTS's youngest member Jungkook picked up song of the summer for his solo hit Seven, featuring US rapper Latto. This was one of the only categories where Swift was defeated, the other being best video editing, which went to Olivia Rodrigo's Vampire.

The night's only dedicated K-Pop award went to eight-piece boy band Stray Kids for their single S-Class, which they also performed.

Shakira won the Vanguard Award 33 years after she released her first album, Magia, at the age of 13.

Since then, she has scored several multi-platinum hits including Whenever, Wherever, Hips Don't Lie, Beautiful Liar, Waka Waka and this year's viral hit Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol 53.

The ceremony lasted almost four hours, a large portion of which was spent celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, from an opening performance by Lil Wayne to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion giving the debut performance of their new single, Bongos.

It ended with an all-star megamix of hip-hop classics, opening with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's The Message, and ending on a rendition of Run-DMC's Walk This Way.

Full list of winners

  • Video of the year: Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero
  • Artist of the year: Taylor Swift
  • Song of the year: Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero
  • Best new artist: Ice Spice
  • Push performance of the year: April 2023: Tomorrow X Together - Sugar Rush Ride
  • Best collaboration: Karol G, Shakira - TQG
  • Best pop: Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero
  • Best hip-hop: Nicki Minaj - Super Freaky Girl
  • Best R&B: SZA - Shirt
  • Best alternative: Lana Del Rey featuring Jon Batiste - Candy Necklace
  • Best rock: Måneskin - The Loneliset
  • Best latin: Anitta - Funk Rave
  • Best K-Pop: Stray Kids - S-Class
  • Best Afrobeats: Rema & Selena Gomez - Calm Down
  • Video for good: Dove Cameron - Breakfast
  • Best direction: Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero, directed by Taylor Swift
  • Best cinematography: Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero, cinematography by Rina Yang
  • Best visual effects: Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero, visual effects by Parliament
  • Best choreography: Blackpink - Pink Venom, choreography by Kiel Tutin and Sienna Lalau
  • Best art direction: Doja Cat - Attention, art direction by Spencer Graves
  • Best editing: Olivia Rodrigo - Vampire, edited by Sofia Kerpan and David Checel
  • Show of the summer: Taylor Swift
  • Group of the year: Blackpink
  • Song of the summer: Jung Kook featuring Latto - Seven
  • Album of the year: Taylor Swift - Midnights
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