The Foo Fighters felt “pretty good” to receive the first US Global Icon Award at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Sunday (12.09.21) night.
The ‘Walk’ hitmakers were introduced to the stage at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center by Billie Eilish, who hailed them as “heroes” and “legends” before they performed their hits ‘Learn to Fly’, ‘Shame Shame’, and ‘Everlong’ and then took to the podium to accept the accolade.
Joined on stage by bandmates Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee, frontman Dave Grohl said: “Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen for having us here tonight. It’s quite an award to receive. We’ve been a band for 26 years, so it feels pretty good.”
After a list of thank yous which included “all of the people at MTV past and present”, Dave quipped: “Thank you all very much for this award. We’ll see you in 26 years.”
Elsewhere at the ceremony, Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo and BTS each won three awards.
The ‘Old Town Road’ singer scooped the night’s biggest honour, Video of the Year, for ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’, as well as Best Visual Effects and Best Direction for the same track’s promo clip.
Accepting Video of the Year, Nas said: “Wow! Let’s go! Wow! Oh my god! OK, first I want to say thank you for the gay agenda. Let’s go gay agenda!
“Thank you to every single person on my team. Everybody go buy my album September 17.
“Montero, I love you guys so much. I do not take this for granted!”
The 22-year-old star was also joined on stage by Jack Harlow for a performance of ‘Industry Baby’.
Olivia took home Song of the Year for ‘Drivers License’ and Push Performance of the Year for a May 2021 rendition of the song, as well as Best New Artist, and the K-Pop stars were recognised as Group of the Year, had their track ‘Butter’ named Song of the Summer and triumphed in the Best K-Pop category.
Meanwhile, Justin Bieber won another of the night’s biggest awards, Artist of the Year, ahead of Ariana Grande, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Olivia, and Taylor Swift, and thanked his wife, Hailey Bieber, and rapper Travis Scott, who went on to win the Best Hip-Hop accolade shortly afterwards.
Justin – who opened the show in a joint performance with The Kid Laroi – said: “I look over here and I see my beautiful wife, and I just wanna say I love you so much.
“Travis Scott, man, you inspire me so much. Thank you for being you.”
The 27-year-old star also reflected on the current state of the world and expressed his hope that music will bring people together.
He said: “As we know, there’s so much going on in the world as we speak. We’re in unprecedented times right now.
“Music is such an amazing opportunity and an amazing outlet to be able to reach people to be able to bring us all together. That’s why we’re here right now. We’re all here together. We got a lot more in common than we don’t. I look around here and I see so many beautiful faces. I really do believe the best is yet to come.”
Justin also won the Best Pop award for ‘Peaches’ at the ceremony, which was hosted by Doja Cat.
The host managed to get her hands on two awards of her own, taking Best Collaboration with SZA for ‘Kiss Me More’ and Best Art Direction for ‘Best Friend’ with Sawetee.
MTV Video Music Awards 2021 Full list of winners:
Video of the Year:
Lil Nas X – ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’
Artist of the Year:
Justin Bieber
Song of the Year:
Olivia Rodrigo – ‘Drivers License’
Best New Artist, Presented by Facebook:
Olivia Rodrigo
Push Performance of the Year:
May 2021: Olivia Rodrigo – ‘Drivers License’
Best Collaboration:
Doja Cat ft. SZA – ‘Kiss Me More’
Best Pop:
Justin Bieber ft. Daniel Caesar, Giveon – ‘Peaches’
Best Hip-Hop:
Travis Scott ft. Young Thug & M.I.A. – ‘Franchise’
Best Rock:
John Mayer – ‘Last Train Home’
Best Alternative:
Machine Gun Kelly ft. Blackbear – ‘My Ex’s Best Friend’
Best Latin:
Billie Eilish & ROSALÍA – ‘Lo Vas A Olvidar’
Best R&B:
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic – ‘Leave the Door Open’
Best K-Pop:
BTS – ‘Butter’
Video for Good:
Billie Eilish – ‘Your Power’
Best Direction:
Lil Nas X – ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ – Directed by: Lil Nas X and Tanu Muino
Best Cinematography:
Beyoncé, Blue Ivy, SAINt JHN, WizKid – ‘Brown Skin Girl’ – Cinematography by: Benoit Soler, Malik H. Sayeed, Mohammed Atta Ahmed, Santiago Gonzalez, Ryan Helfant
Best Art Direction:
Saweetie ft. Doja Cat – ‘Best Friend’ – Art Direction by: Art Haynes
Best Visual Effects:
Lil Nas X – ‘Montero (Call Me By Your Name)’ – Visual Effects by: Mathematic
Best Choreography:
Harry Styles – ‘Treat People With Kindness’ – Choreography by: Paul Roberts
Best Editing:
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic – ‘Leave the Door Open’ – Editing by: Troy Charbonnet
Group of the Year:
BTS
Song of the Summer:
BTS, ‘Butter’
Global Icon Award:
Foo Fighters