Taylor Swift crowned at MTV’s VMAs gala, where women took power on stage

When a formula is repeated successfully for 40 years, there is a reason for it. Since 1984, MTV’s Video Music Awards know how to bring to fans of global music — although it is undeniable that it is predominantly American — the best of each house: powerful voices, spectacle, great performances, surprises (though not many) and looks to remember. And, as it has been doing for four decades, on Wednesday evening it filled the stage at Long Island’s UBS Arena with music and the usual hustle and bustle of a channel that, if not as groundbreaking today as it was in the 1980s, continues to be a reference in global music, especially pop.

The venue was packed with fans and artists who enjoyed performances by Eminem, who opened the night to applause and surrounded by look-alikes, and about 20 other artists while awards were being handed out. Taylor Swift was the most nominated, with 12 nods, of which she collected seven. She picked up the first award for best collaboration thanks to Fortnight, with Post Malone; their joint work also won the award for video of the year, the most important accolade of the night. The awards ceremony was held on September 11, and Swift began her acceptance speech by remembering the victims of 9/11. “Waking up this morning in New York on September 11, I’ve just been thinking about what happened 23 years ago, everyone who lost a loved one and everyone that we lost,” Swift said. “And that is the most important thing about today and everything that happens tonight falls behind that.”

Notwithstanding the always wonderful Lenny Kravitz (who performed shirtless and wearing a feather bolero), Shawn Mendes and Rauw Alejandro, the women were the undisputed queens of the gala. There was Anitta, who took home the award for best Latin video for the second consecutive year. Lisa, although without Rosalía, sang with ease New Woman and Rockstar (which won for best K-Pop song). The Spanish singer was heard with Karol G, who set up a bar on the beach with dancing couples and moved among the public like a fish in water with Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido and tried to make Taylor Swift move with some Latin rhythm.

Sabrina Carpenter, one of the stars of the season and winner of the award for best song of the year for Espresso, beating out her mentor Swift, got on a swing and kissed an alien, but above all she played on the fact that the awards are called Moon People by surrounding herself with dozens of astronauts for her performance; Megan Thee Stallion —who also acted as host— projected her face onto the head of a giant astronaut in the middle of the stage. Chappell Roan, winner of best new artist, emerged from a dungeon dressed in full armor and then set it on fire to sing Good Luck, Babe! Halsey set up a homemade garage with her (all-female) band to sing Ego, while Camila Cabello locked herself inside a glass octagon. And GloRilla coolly overcame a small problem with her top, which came undone in the middle of her performance while she was singing on a table in flames.

One of the stars of the night was Katy Perry, honored with the award for her career-long series of groundbreaking videos, each one more spectacular than the last, symbolic of her career from the beginning. She was introduced by her husband and father of their daughter, Orlando Bloom, and she returned the favor with a stunning 10-minute performance of a remix of half a dozen songs from her various eras. “You fell in love with her as Katy Perry. I fell in love with her as Katherine Hudson,” the actor said, using the artist’s real name. “You know her as a global superstar who brings love, light and her unique sense of humor to every song she writes and every video she creates. I know her as a mother, a partner, who brings the same love and joy to our family.” She thanked MTV (“thanks for believing in my weirdness from day one”) and her family for giving her “the deepest roots,” her fans for being with her “all my life,” and also spoke about the importance of mental health for artists, especially women.

During the gala, not all of the awards were aired live; the main attraction was the performances, and only a few Moon People were awarded live, while most were only tweeted out, which did not please all fans.

In these 40 years, the MTV VMAs have seen Madonna dressed as a bride singing Like a Virgin (and kissing both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera), Lady Gaga wrapped in raw meat, Miley Cyrus twerking like never before, Michael Jackson kissing Lisa Marie Presley and Beyoncé announcing her first pregnancy by surprise. These days, when it seems that nearly everything has been already done, and in a hyperconnected world that years to find authenticity, the event has found success by showing the artists with a drink in hand, telling each other intimate details with cameras pointed at them throughout the gala, airing their intimacies live. Everything changes, everything stays the same, so that the show can go on.

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