Global superstar Taylor Swift made history at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards and used her acceptance speeches to thank several people and encourage her fans to register to vote in the 2024 presidential election.
What Happened: Swift adds yet another achievement to her collection, alongside her current record-breaking Eras Tour.
The singer won seven MTV Video Music Awards Wednesday night in an award show that aired on Paramount Global‘s PARA PARAA MTV.
Swift's wins make her the most awarded solo artist in VMA history, with 30 career wins. Beyonce has 30 total wins, with 26 coming from her solo works, as reported by the Associated Press.
With several acceptance speeches throughout the award ceremony, Swift used the opportunity to thank her fans, her boyfriend and people she worked with. Swift also paid tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on its anniversary and encouraged her fans to vote.
Swift won “Video of the Year” for “Fortnight,” a song she collaborated on with Post Malone and directed the video herself. She thanked Malone, as well as actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, who made cameos in the video.
One of Swift’s standout memories from shooting the video is that after every take, whenever she yelled “cut,” she would hear someone cheering and clapping from across the studio.
"And that one person was my boyfriend Travis," Swift said referencing her boyfriend NFL star Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs.
The comment drew loud cheers from the crowd.
"Everything this man touches turns to happiness and fun and magic."
While thanking her fans for the fan-voted award, Swift took a moment to encourage them to vote in a different, crucial election.
"If you are over 18, please register to vote for something else that's very important coming up: the presidential election."
Earlier in the night, Swift also took home the award for "Best Collaboration" for "Fortnight." In her speech, the musician honored the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001, in a terrorist attack on America 23 years ago.
"I've just been thinking about what happened 23 years ago, everyone who lost a loved one and everyone that we lost and that is the most important thing about today and everything that happens tonight falls behind that."
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Why It's Important: Swift's call for her fans and anyone watching the VMAs to register to vote comes a day after she publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
While her speech did not mention Harris or tell fans to vote for a particular person, her call-out for registration could have a big impact on the election.
In September, on National Voter Registration Day, Swift posted to her Instagram stories encouraging her fans to register to vote. Swift's post was non-partisan and included a link to the voter registration at Vote.org.
A total of 35,252 people registered to vote during the 2023 National Voter Registration Day, marking the highest turnout since 2020. This figure represents a 23% increase from the previous year. Additionally, the number of 18-year-old voters doubled in 2023 compared to the 2022 campaign.
It’s unknown how many of the registrations Swift was directly responsible for. But the Vote.org website saw a 1,226% jump in site visits in the hour after Swift's Instagram story.
A recent report said that over 330,000 visitors went to vote.gov after her Instagram endorsement post.
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