The VMAs are back for 2023. Did this year’s show live up to the ceremony’s legacy?
Music has always been popular. People have loved it for as long as society has existed, and perhaps even earlier than that. There is evidence supporting the existence of bone flutes in prehistoric times. Who knows? The cavemen might have been jamming away to their own crude renditions of Drake’s “Portland.”
As always, companies love capitalizing on people’s interests. This corporate idea led to the first VMAs (Video Music Awards) taking place in 1984. MTV’S annual VMA show rose in popularity for a reason: the presenting of fan-voted awards to the most popular artists and songs of the year, combined with spectacular performances from prominent and unknown forces in the music industry. However, the question of whether or not the 2023 VMAs upheld this expectation is very, for lack of a better term, wobbly. This year’s show returned to Newark, New Jersey, and was hosted by Nicki Minaj.
The legacy of the VMAs is certainly one to uphold. Britney Spears sporting a giant python around her neck in her 2001 performance of “I’m A Slave 4 U” is one VMA moment that, among many, is quite difficult to top. The VMA show this year had its reasonable share of interesting moments– for example, NSYNC’s reunion while presenting Best Pop Song– but, unfortunately, no shockers. Maybe next year.
Here’s a brief overview of who won what. This list only includes the awards that were actually presented during the ceremony– more awards were handed out, but not at the event.
For a list of all the 2023 VMA winners, click here.
- Best Pop went to “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift.
- Best K-Pop was received by Stray Kids’ “S-Class.”
- Song of the Year was given to “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift.
- “Shirt” by SZA won Best R&B.
- Shakira received the Video Vanguard Award.
- Anitta won Best Latin for “Funk Rave.”
- Diddy was given the Global Icon award.
- Rema and Selena Gomez’s collaboration on “Calm Down” won Best Afrobeats.
- Best Hip-Hop was given to “Super Freaky Girl” by Nicki Minaj.
- KAROL G and Shakira’s “TQG” took the award for Best Collaboration.
- “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift won Best Direction.
- Best New Artist went to Ice Spice.
- Video of the Year was handed to Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero.”
Now, Barstow had some of its own opinions on the VMAs this year! Provided that the B-Line only received 40 responses total from across the entire student body, please take these statistics with a grain of salt. Maybe even a handful of salt.
Over half of survey-takers believed that Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” deserved the awards for Video of the Year and Song of the Year, and in accordance, 64.1% supported Taylor Swift’s position as 2023 Artist of the Year. In fact, most results from the survey indicated that students more or less agreed with most of the award placements: for example, Ice Spice as Best New Artist. Disagreement concerned Best K-Pop (Barstow thought BLACKPINK’s ‘Pink Venom’ would be a better fit), Best Collaboration (‘Creepin’ [Remix]’ by Metro Boomin, The Weeknd, Diddy, and 21 Savage took this cake), and Best Latin (Shakira’s ‘Acróstico’ was most popular with students).
The show was opened by Lil Wayne, whose performance helped prepare the crowd’s VMA energy. Lil Wayne was succeeded by Olivia Rodrigo, whose performance of the vindictive track “vampire” was unique– various parts of the stage began to malfunction when the chorus of the song hit, to parody the song’s music video. It was staged to allow Rodrigo a smooth transition into another song, “get him back,” from her new album GUTS. Creative! The two’s performances undoubtedly did their job in getting the crowd going.
The first award presented was best pop, from NSYNC, whose last appearance on the VMAs was a whopping ten years ago. They gave the first honor of the night to– no surprise– Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero.” Considering that the song could be heard in every department store on the planet since its release, its receiving of Best Pop seems fitting. Taylor Swift was the queen of the 2023 VMAs, from her entertaining reactions to each performance to her breaking the VMA record by winning nine awards (including ones not presented at the event) in one night.
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion then took to the stage to perform “Bongos,” their newest single, and were followed by Demi Lovato, who belted out her signature high notes on “Heart Attack,” “Sorry Not Sorry,” and “Cool For The Summer.” The next award, Best K-Pop, was presented to Stray Kids’ ‘S-Class,’ and was followed by a quick performance from Kaliii with her song ‘Area Codes’ (“Got a white boy on my roster, he be feeding me pasta and lobster.” That one).
Then, Nelly Furtado and Timbaland, the sensations, bestowed the Song of The Year award to, guess who, Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero”! Again, no surprise. She’s everywhere. Anitta, the Brazilian star that rocked both the VMAs of 2022 and 2023, proudly performed her hits “Used To Be,” “Funk Rave,” and “Grip,” The Best R&B award was proudly given to SZA’s “Shirt.” The SOS singer couldn’t make it to the event, so Ashanti and French Montana, the presenters of the award, accepted the honor on her behalf.
Doja Cat’s performances of songs ”Attention,” “Paint the Town Red,” and “Demons” were the next events that seemed worth looking forward to. Her ensemble was relatively normal, if one ignores the fact that she was surrounded by background dancers slathered in fake blood. They mimicked her every movement and eventually started smiling in a Pennywise kind of way, which was icing on the “I am absolutely freaked out” cake. Overall, Doja’s performance was well-received by fans, even with the anti-Kittenz run that she has been on as of late. Surprisingly, the singer did not receive any awards this year.
After some filler, Shakira graced the stage with an iconic ten-minute performance of several of her hits. The singer began with “She-Wolf” and smoothly transitioned into a medley containing songs like ‘Objection,’ ‘Whenever, Wherever,’ ‘Hips Don’t Lie,’ and more. Shakira’s status as a spectacular performer was strengthened by her appearance this year, as literally, her hips told no lies. Following her performance, Shakira gratefully received the Video Vanguard Award.
Nicki Minaj, the hostess herself, performed “Last Time I Saw You” and a sneak peek from her upcoming album Pink Fridays 2, “Big Difference.” The Barbz in the crowd went crazy for this one. The next award presented was Best Latin to Anitta’s ‘Funk Rave.’ Anitta won the same award last year for her hit “Envolver,” and made history by being the first Brazilian to win the Best Latin category. She ended her winning speech saying, “I want to thank myself because I worked so hard.” And work hard she did! The Latin streak was carried on by the VMA debut of KAROL G, whose popularity has been on the rise. Also making their VMA debut was Reneé Rapp, who is most notably known for her role as Regina George in the Broadway musical Mean Girls.
The foundational man of hip-hop, Sean “Diddy” Combs, was next to see the stage. He performed songs like “Last Night,” “Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems,” and “Bad Boys For Life.” King Combs, Nicki Minaj, and Yung Miami joined him. Diddy was then given the award for 2023 MTV Global Icon. Following another performance from Reneé Rapp, Peso Pluma had his own VMA debut with the song “LADY GAGA.” The Mexican artist has been rising in popularity ever since his track “Ella Baila Sola” entered the top five on the Billboard Top 100.
Best Afrobeats was the next award on the roster, and this year was the first to include the genre as a winnable category. The recipient of the honor was Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down.” Then arrived the performance of Best K-Pop winners Stray Kids, who performed “S-Class,” complete with detailed choreography, live vocals, and a dance break designed to blow the viewer away. Next, Mexican rock band The Warning, hit the stage to perform their song “MORE.” The new group, composed of three sisters, was well received by the audience.
The Best Hip-Hop award was taken home by Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl.” Subsequently, Metro Boomin arrived on stage for his performance, featuring Future, Swae Lee, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and NAV. Metro Boomin and Future first performed “Superhero (Heroes and Villains).” Future made this performance with his high-tier rap skills– Metro Boomin, a producer, doesn’t have much to add to a stage performance other than head-bopping or an occasional shout. Next was “Callin,” the hit from Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse, which spotlighted Swae Lee, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and NAV. The artists entered the stage one by one. It’s safe to say that the interest in Metro Boomin’s performance was heavily made by his featured artists– they were the only components that added any sort of interest to the whole affair.
The next award was Best Collaboration and went to ‘TQG’ by KAROL G and Shakira, who gave a lovely speech in Spanish to their fans. Fall Out Boy, a group that hasn’t been seen on the VMAs with their performances since 2007, was next on stage and had the entire audience rocking out to “We Didn’t Start The Fire.” Then, the award for Best Direction went to, yet again, Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero.” Swift actually directed the music video for the song herself, unlike the other nominees, which added an extra air of deservingness to this award.
TOMORROW X TOGETHER and Anitta then graced the stage with a premier performance of their new single, “Back For More”’ As expected of K-pop groups, the choreography blew away the crowd. Combined with stage effects and an epic dance break similar to that of Stray Kids, TOMORROW X TOGETHER and Anitta seriously impressed the audience.
The Warning came back onto the extended play stage with their rock-flavor song “EVOLVE.” To continue the rock streak, Måneskin was up next to play “HONEY (ARE U COMING?).” Their performance was full of energy. Taylor Swift pulled out another reaction from her Pokédex of responses to VMA performances, blowing kisses to Måneskin vocalist Damiano David.
The next award presented was Best New Artist. Dove Cameron was the one who gave it, which was fitting due to her winning the same award last year. This year’s winner was, to nobody’s shock, Ice Spice! Kelsea Ballerini then made her VMA debut with the song “Penthouse (Healed Version).” The performance afterwards was arguably the most prominent of the night: the Hip-Hop 50th Anniversary performance was done by some of the biggest icons of the genre, including Diddy, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and others. The last award of the night, Video of the Year, was the most anticipated– obviously because the Video Music Awards’ most important award should be concerning video music. Of course, the award went to “Anti-Hero” by Taylor Swift. Viewers of the program probably lost count of how many times Swift went up to the stage to deliver another victory speech by the time the show ended. It didn’t even include the awards she received for “Anti-Hero” that weren’t presented at the ceremony– Swifties are truly a force to be reckoned with.
Overall, watching the 2023 VMAs was certainly an experience. If one wants to formulate their own viewpoints based on logic and sound judgment, it is best that they sit through the three-hour VMA program on MTV.com (or possibly some other pirate website, depending on one’s own preference) instead of reading an article. However, the B-Line hopes that the reader of this rather opinionated article receives the insight they desire about what transgressed at the VMAs this year.
