LIST: MTV Video Music Awards 2023 winners, led by Taylor Swift
MANILA, Philippines — Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift dominated the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) with nine wins from 11 nominations, including the top prizes Video, Song, Artist, and Album of the Year.
The Artist of the Year race was particularly special as for the first time ever, all the nominees were women, Taylor accompanied by the likes of Beyoncé, returning host Nicki Minaj, Video Vanguard award recipient Shakira, as well as Doja Cat, and Karol G.
Shakira in fact was one of only three artists to receive multiple awards as she won Best Collaboration with Karol G for their song "TQG"; the third was K-pop girl group BLACKPINK winning Group of the Year and its song "Pink Venom" winning Best Choreography.
The latter award was a category voted for by industry professionals rather than fans, so it was credited to choreographers Lee Jung, Kiel Tutin, Sienna Lalau, and Taryn Cheng.
Nicki did win Best Hip-Hop for "Super Freaky Girl" while the music video for Doja's "Attention" won Best Art Direction, credited to art director Spencer Graves.
A majority of Taylor's wins was because of her hit song "Anti-Hero" from "Midnights," which won Album of the Year, while her ongoing "Eras" tour led the singer to win Show of the Summer in a field that contained Beyoncé (Renaissance), BLACKPINK (Born Pink), and Ed Sheeran (Mathematics).
"Anti-Hero" won Video of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop in the fan-voted categories, and Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Direction in the professional categories.
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Taylor herself directed the "Anti-Hero" music video, so the Best Direction award goes to her; the other two professional awards were credited to Parliament VFX and cinematographer Rina Yang.
Joining BLACKPINK in the K-pop winners this year were Stray Kids for Best K-pop with "S-Class," Tomorrow X Together for "Push Performance of the Year" with "Sugar Rush Ride," and BTS's Jungkook for Song of Summer with "Seven" featuring Latto.
The music video for Filipino-American singer Olivia Rodrigo's "Vampire" won the last professional award Best Editing, one of the two awards Taylor was up for but didn't win along with Song of Summer.
Other winners were Ice Spice for Best New Artist, SZA for Best R&B with "Shirt," Anitta for Best Latin with "Funk Rave," Måneskin for Best Rock with "The Loneliest," Lana del Rey for Best Alternative with "Candy Necklace" featuring Jon Batiste, Dove Cameron for Video for Good with "Breakfast," and Rema and Selena Gomez for Best Afrobeats with "Calm Down."
While women dominated the awards, another highlight of this year's MTV VMAs was a 50th anniversary tribute to hip-hop, topped off by Diddy winning the special Global Icon Award.
Performers Metro Boomin, Swae Lee, Nav and A Boogie wit da Hoodie introduced the Hip Hop 50th Anniversary Medley performed by global artists, namely Nicki, LL Cool J, Lil Wayne, DMC, Doug E. Fresh, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
Nicki and Lil Wayne also performed earlier in the night like Doja Cat, as did Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, and Kaliii, to signal a victory for women and hip-hop.
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