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Taylor Swift took home the night’s biggest prize – and announced a new album – during the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, a chaotic, bleep-heavy show that nodded to music phenomena past and present, and featured a surprise appearance by Johnny Depp.
Swift, who won best longform video and video of the year for All Too Well (10 Minute Version) for her 2021 re-recorded album Red, was the only artist to double-up on televised awards. Across three hours, MTV moonmen statues went to industry veterans such as Nicki Minaj (best hip-hop) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (best rock); non-English superstars such as Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny (artist of the year) and Blackpink’s Lisa (best K-pop); and newer faces Jack Harlow (song of summer), Lil Nas X (best collaboration, with Harlow, for Industry Baby) and Dove Cameron, a former Disney child star turned actor, who surprised some to win best new artist.
Swift noted that the final category of the evening, video of the year, was historic, as “for the first time in VMA history, four of the directors nominated in the video of the year category are women.” The pop star said her fans had “emboldened” her to re-record her first five albums, as part of a dispute with her former record label, and used the speech to announce a “brand new album” that will be released 21 October.
Swift is the only artist to win a third video of the year trophy, and the first to win for a video she directed herself. She won previously in 2015 for Bad Blood and 2019 for You Need to Calm Down.
