Hosted by Meagan Thee Stallion, the 2024 VMAs are successfully in the books. Taylor Swift is now the most awarded VMA solo artist; Sabrina Carpenter; Katy Perry, and Halsey had notable performances; and many fashion designers’ works appeared throughout the night including Dior, Y/Project, and Monse.
Records
Perhaps the most significant achievement of the night was Taylor Swift’s seven wins leading her to become the most awarded solo artist. While she is tied with defending legend, Beyoncé, for total career wins, several of Beyoncés wins come from Destiny’s Child and in partnership with her husband Jay-Z, leaving Swift with the most for a solo artist.
As Sabrina Carpenter has become a renowned name within the pop music world, it was only right that she received her first ever VMA for Song of the Year for her lead single and hit of the summer, “Espresso.” Chappell Roan also won her first VMA for Best New Artist following the releases of recent hits “Good Luck, Babe!” and “HOT TO GO!”
Performances
After a highly successful year and rising to the occasion last year during her pre-show performance, Sabrina Carpenter performed a mashup of three songs from her latest album, Short n’ Sweet: “Please Please Please,” “Taste,” and “Espresso.” Despite being small in stature, Carpenter’s presence was large as she began her set from a floating gem chair in the air, lighting up the stage with her astronaut and alien backup dancers paying tribute to the VMAs.
In the middle of evening, Katy Perry won VMA’s Most Iconic Performance for her 2013 performance of “Roar”–an unexpected victory for the pop artist after many fans projected Gaga to be the favored nominee. While Perry did perform a medley of several of her top hits and mention her win of the Video Vanguard award (announced during the pre show), her set had no mention of this unexpected win.
The final performance of the night was by Halsey as they returned to the stage after being away due to health issues. The singer and mother showcased their new single “ego,” part of the broader album The Great Impersonator coming October 25th of this year. They noted in a recent interview that their son was a part of selecting this song as the lead single. While Halsey is still fighting through health struggles as they shared a post-show Lupus flare on their instagram stories, many fans are happy to watch the recovery and return to music of this singer.
Fashion
In addition to the awards and music of the VMAs, fashion designers got the chance to showcase their looks on the carpet. Chappell Roan graced the carpet dressed in a medieval inspired outfit from Y/Project accessorized with an antique green robe. For her performance look, Roan donned a full chainmail armor outfit. She finished out the night accepting her award in a Julien Dossena spring 2024 collection chainmail dress.
Despite the recent presence of a lot of Gucci in Taylor Swift’s street style, she showed up in edgy yellow plaid Dior for the carpet, before changing into a custom sequined Monse minidress featuring a UFO – seemingly a callout to the song “Down Bad” from her latest album The Tortured Poets Department.
Taylor Swift’s Acceptance Speech bookends
The show began with over around an hour of performances interrupted by only the announcement of Taylor swift winning Best Collaboration for her song Fortnight (ft. Post Malone). During this first acceptance speech, Swift reminded viewers that the most important aspect of the night was not the awards and celebration of music but rather the significance of the date the awards were being held on, September 11th, referencing the tragedy that occurred 23 years ago.
Despite winning seven awards throughout the night, this was only Swift’s second acceptance speech in which she called out her boyfriend Travis Kelce as her biggest supporter and urged fans to go out and vote in the upcoming election, drawing ties to how this was a fan voted award.
