Taylor Swift called for people to sign the Equality Act petition as she won the top honour at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards on Monday (26.08.19).
The 29-year-old singer walked away with the prize for Video of the Year for her hit single ‘You Need to Calm Down’ during the annual awards ceremony at the Prudential Centre in Newark, New Jersey, and used her acceptance speech to thank those who had already signed the petition – which says every human deserves equal rights by law – as well as urging others who hadn’t to put their signature on the bill.
Speaking on stage at the event, Taylor said: "I just want to say that this is a fan-voted award. So, I first want to say thank you to the fans because in this video, several points were made, so you voting for this video means that you want a world where we’re all treated equally.
"Regardless of who we are, regardless of how we identify, at the end of this video there was a petition – and there still is a petition for the Equality Act, which basically just says we all deserve equal rights under the law.
"And, I want to thank everyone who signed that petition because it now has half-a-million signatures, which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White House."
The ‘ME!’ hitmaker was one of the biggest winners at the ceremony, as she also bagged the gongs for Video for Good – which was also awarded for ‘You Need to Calm Down’ – and ‘ME!’, her collaboration with Brendon Urie, won Best Visual Effects.
Billie Eilish also took home three awards, winning Best New Artist, Push Artist of the Year, and Best Editing for ‘bad guy’, whilst Ariana Grande was the only other artist to bag three gongs, as she won Artist of the Year, Song of Summer for her collaboration with Social House on ‘Boyfriend’, and Best Art Direction for ‘7 Rings’.
Several artists won two awards each, including Lil Nas X – whose remix of ‘Old Town Road’ with Billie Ray Cyrus won him Song of the Year and Best Direction – Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, who teamed up for ‘Señorita’ which won them Best Collaboration and Best Cinematography, and K-Pop group BTS who were crowned the winners in the Best Group category, as well as winning Best K-Pop for ‘Boy With Luv’, their collaboration with Halsey.
2019 MTV Video Music Awards winners:
Video Vanguard
Missy Elliot
Video of the Year
Taylor Swift – ‘You Need to Calm Down’
Artist of the Year
Ariana Grande
Song of the Year
Lil Nas X – ‘Old Town Road (Remix)’ ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
Best New Artist
Billie Eilish
Best Collaboration
Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello – ‘Señorita’
Push Artist of the Year
Billie Eilish
Best Pop
Jonas Brothers – ‘Sucker’
Best Hip-Hop
Cardi B – ‘Money’
Best R&B
Normani – ‘Waves’ ft. 6LACK
Best K-Pop
BTS – ‘Boy With Luv’ ft. Halsey
Best Latin
ROSALÍA and J Balvin – ‘Con Altura’ ft. El Guincho
Best Dance
The Chainsmokers – ‘Call You Mine’ ft. Bebe Rexha
Best Rock
Panic! At the Disco – ‘High Hopes’
Video for Good
Taylor Swift – ‘You Need to Calm Down’
Best Group
BTS
Best Power Anthem
Megan Thee Stallion – ‘Hot Girl Summer’ ft. Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign
Song of Summer
Ariana Grande and Social House – ‘Boyfriend’
Fashion Trailblazer
Marc Jacobs
Best Direction
Lil Nas X – ‘Old Town Road (Remix)’ ft. Billy Ray Cyrus
Best Visual Effects
Taylor Swift – ‘ME!’ ft. Brendon Urie
Best Editing
Billie Eilish – ‘bad guy’
Best Art Direction
Ariana Grande – ‘7 Rings’
Best Choreography
ROSALÍA and J Balvin – ‘Con Altura’ ft. El Guincho
Best Cinematography
Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello – ‘Señorita’