The Time When Kanye West Interrupted Taylor Swift At The VMAs—Here’s How That Infamous Moment Shaped Both Their Careers!
The 2009 MTV VMAs were a messy fairytale for Taylor Swift. What began as a gorgeous night turned into a circus when Kanye West swooped in like a tornado, crashing her acceptance speech.
Kanye West once interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs (Photo Credit – Koimoi)
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In the 2009 MTV VMAs, Swift approached the mic, excitement radiating from her, saying, “Thank you so much,” but West stormed the stage before she could finish her moment.
“Yo, Taylor,” he interrupted, “I’m really happy for you. Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.” Cue the collective gasps and booing from the audience, aimed squarely at Kanye. But poor Swift, blindsided and flustered, thought those boos were for her. “It was so echoey in there,” she later confessed in her 2020 documentary, Miss Americana. “I thought they were booing me.” Talk about a plot twist!
The aftermath? A whirlwind of drama that shaped Swift’s career. She called it the start of “a lot of psychological paths” she went down, some of which were downright murky. Despite it all, she wished for no hard feelings, telling Entertainment Tonight, “I don’t know him, and I don’t want to start anything.” Classic Taylor, right? But the feud was just getting started.
In the days following the VMAs, West reached out to apologize, and Swift, being the gracious queen she is, accepted. She even performed Innocent at the 2010 VMAs, hinting at forgiveness. But West wasn’t done stirring the pot. He later told Jay Leno that while he knew his behavior was “wrong,” he also had some twisted logic about being a “soldier of culture.” Ugh.
Fast forward to 2015, when Swift presented West with the Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs. It was a moment! She playfully referenced their infamous moment, saying, “I guess I have to say to the other winners tonight, ‘I’m really happy for you, and Imma let you finish. But Kanye West has had one of the greatest careers of all time.’” Everyone thought, “Is this the reconciliation we’ve been waiting for?”
But nope, drama alert! In 2016, West dropped Famous, reigniting the feud with the lyric “I made that b—h famous.” Swift was like, “Excuse me?” She insisted he didn’t inform her, while he and Kim Kardashian claimed he had.
Then came the Snapchat saga, where Kardashian posted videos supposedly showing Swift giving West the thumbs-up. Swift fired back, saying, “Being falsely painted as a liar…is character assassination.” She felt like her career was on the line, saying it all sent her to a dark place. “I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year,” she revealed in a 2023 interview. Yikes!
As time passed, Swift reflected on their relationship, realizing she initially craved West’s respect. But after the 2015 VMAs, things got chilly when he hinted she was just there for the ratings. “If you want to be on bad terms, let’s be on bad terms, but just be real about it,” she asserted.
With the 2024 MTV VMAs looming, fans are left on the edge of their seats. Swift’s perspective? “Every time someone talks s–t, it just makes me work even harder.” With a history as wild as theirs, one thing’s for sure: the saga is far from over!
