Taylor Swift is in the building.
Swift, 34, looked striking in a yellow-and-black plaid Dior dress with black shorts underneath at the Wednesday, September 11, 2024 MTV Video Music Awards show at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. She accessorized the look with a matching choker, knee-high black Stuart Weitzman boots and fingerless black gloves with cutouts.
Swift earned 12 VMA nominations this year, more than any other artist. She was awarded Best Collaboration and Song of the Summer for “Fortnight,” her duet with Post Malone, early in the evening. Her other nods include Video of the Year and Song of the Year for “Fortnight.” She was also nominated for VMAs Most Iconic Performance for her 2009 rendition of “You Belong With Me.”
The performance, which featured then-19-year-old Swift singing “You Belong With Me” on a subway car and later on top of a taxi, took place after Kanye West infamously interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech for her first VMA, Best Video by a Female Artist.
Despite West, 47, claiming in his controversial 2016 song “Famous” that he “made” Swift what she is, Swift was a star before he stole her thunder at the VMAs and she remains one today. The singer has 25 VMAs to date, second only to Beyoncé.
Swift’s attendance at the 2024 VMAs comes days after she kicked off football season by cheering on boyfriend Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs teammates at their Thursday, September 5, game against the Baltimore Ravens. The pop icon rocked denim shorts and a matching crop top with red knee high boots for the game at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium.
After the Chiefs beat the Ravens 27-20, Swift said she was “feeling fantastic” during an Instagram Story video with Chariah Gordon, Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman Jr.’s fiancée.
Long before Swift started dating Kelce, 34, in the summer of 2023, she earned a reputation for being a cheerleader at award shows. The “Cruel Summer” musician can often be spotted singing along and dancing harder than anyone else in the audience. During an August 2014 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers, Swift shared her reasons for letting loose.
“Everybody seems to be sitting there trying to look more unaffected by being at this award show than the person next to them. … A couple years ago I just decided, ‘No. This is the coolest concert you could ever go to. This is, like, all these incredible acts playing their biggest songs and I get to be front row and I’m going to dance during this because I feel like it,’” she said. “And not because it looks cool, because it doesn’t.”
This year’s lineup of VMAs performers includes Camila Cabello, Sabrina Carpenter, Megan Thee Stallion, Halsey, Shawn Mendes and Chappell Roan, and they’re all lucky that Swift will be watching.
