Pop Girlies Unite! A Highly Biased Recap of the 2024 VMAs

Yesterday marked the 41st MTV Video Music Awards, a night to celebrate the music and artists of the past year, but without the prestige (and associated snobbery) of the Grammys. So keeping in theme with the more pop culture-based focus of the VMAs, I present to you my Highly Biased Recap of the highly eventful night.

The night began with a bang before the show even started, with an explosive moment on the black carpet. Chappell Roan arrived to the expected clamouring shouts of the paparazzi along the entrance, but one voice stood out among the din. During a moment of rearranging her dress, one paparazzo was heard loud and clear yelling at Chappell - completely unprovoked - to, “Shut the f*ck up.” Chappell snapped back in kind, “You shut the f*ck up! Don’t… not me b*tch” while giving a glare that could kill a hundred men.

Chappell Roan snaps back on the black carpet  |  Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images

Taylor Swift was awarded the first Moon Man of the night - her first of seven across the evening, including Best Video and Artist of the Year - for Best Collaboration for ‘Fortnight ft. Post Malone’. She began her speech by remembering the events of the 9/11 terror attacks and acknowledging the victims and their loved ones. This unfortunate coincidence of dates came about due to the last minute scheduling of the presidential debate for the night before and MTV’s decision to move the award show back so as to not distract from the debate.

On the awards front there were, as usual, a few winners that just made people go, ‘Really?’ Most notable were the awards for Song of the Summer and a new one-time category, Most Iconic VMAs Performance.

The Song of the Summer award began with 16 nominees which were then narrowed down to a top two via Instagram stories polls on the MTV Instagram account. The final two were ‘Birds of a Feather’ by Billie Eilish and ‘Fortnight’ by Taylor Swift ft. Post Malone, the eventual winner of the category. The problem is, neither of those songs feel particularly… summer-y. Even the most die-hard Swifties disagree with Fortnight’s win, purely because it has the wrong Vibes.

Not to fear! The song that many people agree should have won SotS (despite not even being included in the initial 16 nominations) didn’t walk away empty handed! ‘Espresso’ by Sabrina Carpenter nabbed her her first ever VMA, winning Song of the Year - a pretty fair trade off, if you ask me.

Sabrina Carpenter with her first Moon Man  |  Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

The other, shall we say, controversial award of the night was for Most Iconic VMAs Performance, and oh boy were they right to say iconic. The list of nominees included but was not limited to: the Madonna and Britney kiss, Beyonce’s pregnancy announcement, Britney’s snake performance, Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ wedding dress performance at the very first VMAs, and Lady Gaga’s performance of ‘Paparazzi’ where she burst a bag of fake blood sewn into her all-white outfit. 

And the winner is… Katy Perry performing ‘Roar’ in 2013! Huh? To say people were confused is an understatement. Many tweets were posted that read something along the lines of, '“Does anyone even remember this performance? I don't think I’ve ever even heard of it,” but with a fair bit more shade. 

While people were shocked enough that Katy beat Lady Gaga - the clear internet favourite for the category - they would soon be even more confused once they remembered another performance from that same 2013 award night that wasn’t even nominated. Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke performing ‘We Can’t Stop’ and ‘Blurred Lines’! This was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Miley’s transition from Disney kid to adult party-girl, and was quite literally the catalyst for twerking being added to both the dictionary and mainstream (read: white) culture. And yet somehow it wasn’t iconic enough to be nominated? Sure, Jan…

Miley Cyrus at the 2013 VMAs  |  Photo by Kevin Mazur

On a lighter note, no one should be surprised to see Chappell Roan take home the Moon Man for Best New Artist. After an amazing performance of her song ‘Good Luck, Babe’ that included her firing a flaming crossbow, a castle set on fire, and an army of medieval knights sword fighting, she took a more subdued moment in her acceptance speech. 

Reading from her diary which she had brought onstage, she dedicated her award to, “All the drag queens who inspire me… Queer and trans people that fuel pop… The gays that dedicate my songs to people that they love - or hate.” She finished by sending a message to queer teens living in the mid-west: “I see you, I understand you, because I’m one of you, and don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t be exactly who you wanna be.”

Chappell Roan's firey performance  |  Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images

And there we have it! Obviously I couldn’t talk about everything that happened. I haven’t even mentioned Megan Thee Stallion’s hosting and her amazing outfit homages, OR the fact that Sabrina Carpenter made out with an alien - but on such an exciting night, who can keep track of everything? Certainly not me!