Watch Taylor Swift Open The 2019 VMAs
This past weekend has belonged to Taylor Swift. After releasing her new album, Lover, the pop star went into promotional overdrive, with new interviews coming out from all sides and what, by most accounts, was a strong sales weekend with the biggest sales for an album since Swift’s own Reputation in 2017.
On Monday night, Swift continued the Lover rollout with a performance at the MTV Video Music Awards and, because it’s Taylor Swift, she opened the show. She did two songs from Lover. The first was early single “You Need To Calm Down,” and she backed by the same crew of drag queens that accompanied Miley Cyrus during her infamous 2015 performance and a couple familiar faces from its accompanying music video. The second was Lover’s third single and title track, which marks the first time she performed the song live.
Watch the performance below.
📹| Taylor performando “You Need To Calm Down” no #VMAs pic.twitter.com/Pnesv1wLmG
— Swift Daily Brasil (@swiftdailybrofc) August 27, 2019
📹| Taylor Swift performando “Lover” pela primeira vez no #VMAs pic.twitter.com/yjy7qvYejS
— Swift Daily Brasil (@swiftdailybrofc) August 27, 2019
During the telecast, Swift won two awards, including Video Of The Year for “You Need To Calm Down.” She also won for Video For Good, and let the music video’s co-executive producer Todrick Hall accept it on her behalf. When she won for Video Of The Year, presenter John Travolta tried to give the award to Jade Jolie, a Rupaul’s Drag Race queen and Swift impersonator who also appeared in the “Calm Down” video:
John Travolta mistook Jade Jolie for Taylor Swift when handing over the award for ‘Video of the Year.’ 😂 pic.twitter.com/z8MsJtcp1V
— Pop Crave (@PopCraveMusic) August 27, 2019