MTV VMAs 2023: Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez and Shakira Dominate the Night
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Taylor Swift won nine awards at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, which were held at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Tuesday (Sept. 12). That’s just one award off the single-night record. This brings Swift’s career VMAs tally to 23, second only to Beyoncé on the all-time VMAs leaderboard.
Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks, a new personal-best for the superstar, won video of the year. This was her fourth win in the category, extending her record for the most wins in the category. She previously won for “Bad Blood” (with Kendrick Lamar, 2015), “You Need to Calm Down” (2019) and “All Too Well: The Short Film” (2022).
Swift also won in a separate category – best direction – for “Anti-Hero.” It’s her third win in that category in the past four years, following wins for “The Man” (2019) and “All Too Well: The Short Film” (2022). Swift is the third director to win three times in this category, following David Fincher and Spike Jonze. Swift and Fincher are the only directors to win back-to-back awards in this category. Fincher’s back-to-back awards were for directing Madonna’s “Express Yourself” (1989) and “Vogue” (1990).
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Shakira won two awards – the Video Vanguard Award and Best Collaboration for “TQG,” on which she teamed with Karol G. This is the second year in a row that the Video Vanguard recipient has also won in a competitive category that same year. In addition, two previous category winners were pairings of two women – “Beautiful Liar” by Beyoncé and Shakira won in 2007, followed by “Telephone” by Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé in 2010.
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Nigeria’s globe-trotting musical talent, Rema, and American pop star Selena Gomez have won a 2023 MTV Video Music Awards.
The duo took home the award in the inaugural Best Afrobeats category for their smash hit “Calm Down.”
“Calm Down” was also nominated in the “song of the year” category and the “best collaboration” category.
This win follows Selena Gomez’s historic feat as the first African artist to reach a billion streams on Spotify with his song “Calm Down.”
Image Source: MTV-VMAs
