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- Taylor Swift cleaned up at Tuesday's MTV Video Music Awards.
- Shakira accepted the night's prestigious Video Vanguard prize.
- NSYNC reunited onstage for the first time in a decade.
Taylor Swift cleaned up at Tuesday's MTV Video Music Awards, as Shakira accepted the night's prestigious Video Vanguard prize with a hip-shaking, career-spanning performance.
Swift continued her global reign by scooping awards including Best Song and Best Pop, as several of the night's top trophies still needed handing out.
Turn-of-the-millennium teen heartthrobs NSYNC reunited onstage for the first time in a decade to grant her the latter award, leaving Swift, who is poised to post the first billion-dollar tour, fanning her cheeks.
READ MORE | 'Spotify history': Taylor Swift reaches 100 million monthly streams, but another artist remains No.1
"I'm not doing well pivoting" from fan to winner, Swift said.
"Like, I had your dolls!" she said to the Bye Bye Bye singers.
But she didn't perform on the night known far more for its spectacle than its awards, instead sipping her drink as artists including Olivia Rodrigo, Anitta and Doja Cat took to the stage.
The made-for-broadcast show, held this year in Newark's Prudential Center, frequently panned to Swift who was seated near the main stage next to Ice Spice, the viral Bronx rapper who has collaborated with the pop phenom.
A camera operator was even reportedly tasked with filming Swift for the show's entire duration.
Speaking onstage, she told fans that when writing she often feels she has "a very specific type of insecurity or self-loathing," but when she hears them screaming the lyrics "it brings me to this very relaxing feeling of, maybe we all have the same issues."
Lil Wayne opened the show in a nod to this year's 50th anniversary of hip hop, and Sean Combs - known by his stage names Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy and Diddy - delivered a career-spanning performance as he accepted the night's Global Icon lifetime achievement award.
"This is so surreal," said the 53-year-old from Harlem. "I started out as a paper boy."
And it was Shakira who scored the night's most prestigious award for lifetime achievement, the Video Vanguard award that celebrates music video innovations.
The Colombian performer, 46, stole the show as she performed her signature hip pops and sang a bilingual medley including She Wolf, Te Felicito, Objection (Tango), Whenever, Wherever and Hips Don't Lie.
Wearing a glittering, nude ensemble, the artist finished her set by crowd-surfing to a platform that then elevated her high above a screaming crowd of fans and peers.
"Thank you MTV. Thank you for being such a big part of my career since I was only 18 years old," she said.
Rapper Nicki Minaj hosted the event for the second consecutive year, also debuting live her newest single, Last Time I Saw You, which is slated for release on her album Pink Friday 2 in November.
She also won the night's award for Best Hip Hop.
And Doja Cat ignited the crowd as she performed a medley of Attention, Paint The Town Red and Demons, donning a sexy skirtsuit situation she slowly loosened as she danced, meanwhile unfurling a long blonde mane.
Best R&B went to SZA, who did not attend, while South Korea's Stray Kids won the award for Best K-pop and later performed.
Nigeria's Rema won the prize for Best Afrobeats, a new category, for his remixed single Calm Down featuring Selena Gomez.
The song surpassed a billion streams on Spotify over the weekend.
"This means so much seeing Afrobeats grow this big," Rema said while accepting the trophy.
Anitta dropped a booty-shaking dance party of a show with hits including Funk Rave, which earned the evening's prize for Best Latin.
Colombian Karol G was also among the evening's top performers, and she scored a prize with Shakira for Best Collaboration.
Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion debuted their live performance of Bongos, their latest collaboration that follows the resounding success of WAP.
Cardi entered the stage from the ceiling on a disco ball, her hair in loose waves a la Donna Summer. Megan joined her from another stage, and after their respective verses the pair led the audience through a high-energy, twerkified dance breakdown.
Pop-punk band Fallout Boy rounded out the millennial nostalgia tour that began the night with NSYNC.
The emo rockers performed their updated version of Billy Joel's We Didn't Start The Fire, hitting major moments of the past three decades in a revamp that includes the line: "YouTube killed MTV."
SEE THE FULL LIST OF WINNER'S HERE:
Video of the Year
Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero
Artist of the Year
Taylor Swift
Song of the Year
Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero
Best New Artist
Ice Spice
Push Performance of the Year
TOMORROW X TOGETHER – Sugar Rush Ride
Best Collaboration
KAROL G, Shakira – TQG
Best Pop
Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero
Best Hip-Hop
Nicki Minaj – Super Freaky Girl
Best R&B
SZA – Shirt
Best Alternative
Lana Del Rey ft. Jon Batiste – Candy Necklace
Best Rock
Måneskin – The Loneliest
Best Latin
Anitta – Funk Rave
Best K-Pop
Stray Kids – S-Class
Best Afrobeats
Rema & Selena Gomez – Calm Down
Video for Good
Dove Cameron – Breakfast
Show of the Summer
Taylor Swift
Group of the Year
BLACKPINK
Album of the Year
Taylor Swift – Midnights
Song of the Summer
Jung Kook ft. Latto – Seven
Best Direction
Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero (Directed by Taylor Swift)
Best Cinematography
Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero (Cinematography by Rina Yang)
Best Visual Effects
Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero (Visual Effects by Parliament)
Best Choreography
BLACKPINK – Pink Venom (Choreography by Kiel Tutin, Sienna Lalau, Lee Jung (YGX), Taryn Cheng (YGX))
Best Art Direction
Doja Cat – Attention (Art Direction by Spencer Graves)
Best Editing
Olivia Rodrigo – vampire (Edited by Sofia Kerpan and David Checel)
Video Vanguard Award
Shakira
Global Icon Award
Diddy
