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 An angry Swift took on her critics in the world
premiere of the music video for her first solo single in three
years, "Look What You Made Me Do."
The satirical music video depicted Swift, 27, crawling out of a
grave and declaring her old self dead in a portrayal of a
hard-edged artist with nothing left to lose, drawing more than
470,000 views on Youtube within an hour of its premiere.
Lamar, who went into Sunday's event in Los Angeles with a
leading eight nominations, kicked off the show with a medley
that featured dancers in flames.
The California rapper went home with six statuettes, including
the top award for video of the year and best hip hop video for
"Humble."
British singer-songwriter Sheeran was voted artist of the year.
Despite days of fevered speculation, Swift herself was a
no-show, though she won the only category in which she had been
nominated - best collaboration for "I Don't Wanna Live Forever"
with Zayn Malik.
Nevertheless, her new video quickly became one of the show's
most talked-about moments, largely overshadowing performances by
the likes of Sheeran, Fifth Harmony and Lorde.
The video ended with Swift reviving all the personas of her
music career - from gawky, guitar playing 16-year old to poised
Grammy winner - and having them call each other out for being
fake, pretending to be nice and playing the victim.
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Hosting the VMA show was Swift's long-time rival, Katy Perry, who
made her entrance from the ceiling wearing a space suit and ended
the three-hour event with a performance of single "Swish Swish" with
Nicki Minaj.
Pink, the winner of the 2017 Vanguard Award, gave a speech about
beauty and acceptance directed to her six year-old daughter Willow,
who was in the audience, that moved many to tears.
"Baby girl, we don't change," the singer said. "We take the gravel
and the shell and we make a pearl, and we help other people to
change so they can see other kinds of beauty."
The event also showcased social issues.
Six transgender military service men and woman walked the VMA red
carpet, and a group of suicide survivors stood silently on stage
during a performance of the song "1-800 273-8255", the number of the
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Andrew Hay and Clarence
Fernandez)
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