Lil Nas X and Justin Bieber win big at MTV VMAs

Lil Nas X and Justin Bieber were the big winners at the MTV Video Music Awards last night (September 12) as they claimed the Video of the Year and Artist of the Year gongs respectively.

Lil Nas X scooped Video of the Year for ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ which he co-directed along with Tanu Muino. The superstar rapper beat Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion, DJ Khaled & Drake, Doja Cat & SZA, Ed Sheeran and The Weeknd to the prize.

"First, I want to say thank you to the gay agenda! Let's go, gay agenda!" said the 22-year old in his acceptance speech. Lil Nas X has emerged as a LGBTQI+ rights advocate since he burst onto the pop landscape with ‘Old Town Road’.

Justin Bieber became the second male artist to win Artist of the Year since Ed Sheeran won the inaugural prize in 2017. Camila Cabello, Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga won in the interim years. The Canadian pop sensation saw off competition from Grande, Taylor Swift, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion and Olivia Rodrigo to claim the award.

Bieber paid tribute to his wife Hailey after accepting the prize and said:

"Music is such an amazing opportunity and an amazing outlet to be able to reach people and to be able to bring us all together and that’s why we’re here right now. We’ve got a lot more in common than we don’t."

The 27-year old also took home Best Pop for his song ‘Peaches’ featuring Giveon and Daniel Caesar. He fended off Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, BTS, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo, Shawn Mendes and Taylor Swift to bag the award.

Teen pop prodigy Olivia Rodrigo kept her phenomenal year rolling, winning Song of the Year, Best New Artist and Push Performance of the Year. The 18-year old won Song of the Year for her smash-hit ‘drivers license’.

Rodrigo came out on top against 24kGoldn & Iann Dior’s ‘Mood’, Silk Sonic’s ‘Leave the Door Open’, BTS’s ‘Dynamite’, Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘WAP’ and Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’.

Elsewhere, Doja Cat & SZA won Best Collaboration for their velvety hit ‘Kiss Me More,’ BTS won Group of the Year for the third year running - a new record at the VMAs. The supergroup also won Best K-Pop and Song of the Summer with ‘Butter’.

The boyband have claimed the Best K-Pop gong every year it has been presented winning with ‘On’ in 2020 and ‘Boy with luv’ featuring Halsey in 2019.

Billie Eilish was also amongst the winners as she took home the fan-voted award for Video for Good with her song ‘Your Power’. The song is about a man in power taking advantage of and abusing a younger woman.

The 19-year old took the stage when accepting the prize and said, "We need to protect our young women at all costs, for real."

Travis Scott claimed Best Hip-Hop for his collaboration with Young Thug and MIA, ‘Franchise’ as John Mayer won Best Rock for his song ‘Last Train Home’. Machine Gun Kelly won Best Alternative for his track ‘My Ex’s Best Friend’ featuring Blackbear as Billie Eilish and Rosalía won best Latin for their collab ‘Lo Vas A Olvidar’.

Machine Gun Kelly also had run in with Conor McGregor before the event. The fighter and MGK were pictured clashing on the red carpet outside the Barclays Centre in New York. McGregor, who lost his last fight against Dustin Poirier, is alleged to have thrown his drink at the rapper and his partner, Megan Fox.

Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars’ supergroup Silk Sonic earned the prize for Best R&B with their number 1 hit ‘Leave The Door Open’. Iconic rockers Foo Fighters were also honoured with the first ever Global Icon award in VMAs history.