From Will Smith’s slap to Lady Gaga’s meat dress, awards shows are filled with key pop culture moments – but there’s one key exchange that’s simply unforgettable.
Close your eyes and think back to 2009. ‘I Gotta Feeling’ is number one, it’s Barack Obama’s first year as President and Kanye West has just interrupted Taylor Swift on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).
The ‘You Belong with Me’ singer had just scooped the award for Best Video by a Female Artist.
But West, who was dating Amber Rose at the time, stole Swift’s moment, and the mic as he took to the stage.
He told the singer and the audience: “Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
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West still had a close relationship with the singer and her husband Jay-Z at the time, with the two rappers releasing the coveted Watch the Throne album in 2011.
Losing out to Swift, Beyoncé had been nominated for her ‘Single Ladies’ video – for which she did actually win the Best Video, Editing and Choreography awards.
The moment inspired memes and years of reported feuding featured in following tracks.
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But Swift seems to be able to ‘Shake it Off’ pretty well, and made fun of the interruption during a performance on her Eras Tour.
The 33-year-old was sitting down at the piano for ‘Champagne Problems’ in Mexico City when the crowd chanted her name over and over.
Videos shared to social media, show Swift telling her fans: “It’s the best way to be interrupted, by the way, just people chanting your name.
“It’s really the only way to be interrupted… and I would know.”
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You’ve got to give it to her, at least she can make a joke of the slightly humiliating moment – on both sides, really.
And apparently it’s not the first time she’s referenced it during the Eras Tour.
Earlier in July, Swift chose to sing ‘This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’ during the surprise acoustic set in the show.
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The track from the 2017 album Reputation is rumoured to be about West and originally features her singing: “And here’s to you/Cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do.”
On the song, she then laughs and says: “I can’t even say it with a straight face."
But when Swift reached these lines, she laughed so hard she had to take a moment before continuing with the rest of the song.
With just a few weeks until this year’s VMAs, we can only dream of the pop culture legends that will be born.
Topics: Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Music, Celebrity
Jess Battison