As ever, the MTV VMAs belonged to Taylor Swift. She didn’t perform at the ceremony on September 12, but given the number of Moon Person trophies she walked away with, it’s easy to call her the star of the show. And given how she was treated by the production crew, one might even say she was at the top of the call sheet.
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MTV had a dedicated cameraperson always filming Swift during the live performances, capturing lots and lots of great reactions and dancing. As NME points out, the crew member only moved from position in front of Swift for a moment to let Shakira pass during her big Video Vanguard Award performance.
[RELATED: Taylor Swift Takes Home Video of the Year for “Anti-Hero” at the VMAs]
That’s according to Variety‘s co-editor in chief, Ramin Setoodeh, who captured that exact moment — as well as plenty of others — on X from his seat at the awards show. “How important is Taylor Swift to the #VMAs?” he tweeted. “There is a camera operator tasked with filming her continuously during the live performances onstage.”
The end result was plenty of great fodder for the collaborative watching of the ceremony for which social media allows. She shimmied during Shakira, raised a glass during Megan Thee Stallion, and seemed to generally have a great time during the four-hour VMAs.
And frankly, how could she not? In addition to walking away with the night’s top honor, the coveted Video of the Year award (which she won for “Anti-Hero”), Swift also took home Song of the Year, Artist of the Year, Best Pop, Show of the Summer, Album of the Year, Best Visual Effects, and Best Direction. All in all, she won nine out of the 11 trophies she was up for.
[RELATED: Taylor Swift Wins Best Pop at MTV VMAs]
Perhaps most notably, near the start of the night, Swift played a central role in the NSYNC reunion that happened onstage. The five members of the seminal 2000s boy band reunited (but didn’t perform) to award Swift Best Pop. “I’m not doing well pivoting from this [NSYNC onstage] to this [her Moon Person trophy],” she said as she accepted the award. “I had your dolls! Are you doing something? What’s gonna happen now? They’re gonna do something, and I need to know what it is!”
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