Taylor Swift Dominated the 2023 MTV VMAs With Nine Wins

Taylor Swift at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards in September 2023
Taylor Swift at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards in September 2023. Photo by Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock (14095570bb)

Taylor Swift never had any trouble stealing the show at the MTV Video Music Video Awards, and she did it again! She was crowned as the biggest winner of this year’s MTV VMAs after collecting nine awards, including the coveted video of the year with “Anti-Hero”.

The race for video of the year was pretty tight, but Swift managed to beat tough competition in Doja Cat’s “Attention”, Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers”, Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl”, Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire”, Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy”, and SZA’s “Kill Bill”.

She collected several more, mostly technical, awards thanks to “Anti-Hero”, including song of the year, best pop, best direction, best visual effects, best editing, and best cinematography. In total, Swift won nine out of eleven awards she was nominated for, including artist of the year, show of the summer with The Eras Tour, and album of the year with Midnights.

Swift’s success at this year’s MTV VMAs was quite ground-breaking because she took her career total to 23 awards, only two behind Beyoncé. She was also only one award away from equaling Peter Gabriel’s record for most MTV VMAs won in a single year.

The 2023 MTV Video Music took place on September 12 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, with Nicki Minaj serving as the show’s host.

FULL LIST OF WINNERS AT THE 2023 MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS:

VIDEO OF THE YEAR

Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero” – Republic Records

ARTIST OF THE YEAR

Taylor Swift

SONG OF THE YEAR

Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero” – Republic Records

VIDEO VANGUARD AWARD

Shakira

GLOBAL ICON AWARD

Diddy

BEST NEW ARTIST

Ice Spice – 10K Projects / Capitol Records

PUSH PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR

April 2023: TOMORROW X TOGETHER – “Sugar Rush Ride” – BIGHIT MUSIC / Republic Records

BEST COLLABORATION

KAROL G, Shakira – “TQG” – Universal Music Latino

BEST POP

Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero” – Republic Records

BEST HIP-HOP

Nicki Minaj – “Super Freaky Girl” – Republic Records

BEST R&B

SZA – “Shirt” – Top Dawg Entertainment / RCA Records

BEST ALTERNATIVE

Lana Del Rey ft. Jon Batiste – “Candy Necklace” – Interscope Records

BEST ROCK

Måneskin – “THE LONELIEST” – Arista Records

BEST LATIN

Anitta – “Funk Rave” – Republic Records

BEST K-POP

Stray Kids – “S-Class” – JYP / Republic

BEST AFROBEATS

Rema & Selena Gomez – “Calm Down” – Mavin Global Holdings Ltd / Jonzing World

VIDEO FOR GOOD

Dove Cameron – “Breakfast” – Columbia Records

BEST DIRECTION

Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero” – Republic Records – Directed by Taylor Swift

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero” – Republic Records – Cinematography by Rina Yang

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero” – Republic Records – Visual Effects by Parliament

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

BLACKPINK – “Pink Venom” – YG Entertainment / Interscope Records – Choreography by Kiel Tutin, Sienna Lalau, Lee Jung (YGX), Taryn Cheng (YGX)

BEST ART DIRECTION

Doja Cat – “Attention” – Kemosabe Records / RCA Records – Art Direction by Spencer Graves

BEST EDITING

Taylor Swift – “Anti-Hero” – Republic Records – Edited by Chancler Haynes