When Taylor Swift Revealed She Framed the Infamous Kanye West Incident From 2009 MTV Video Music Awards
Taylor Swift is renowned for using memories as the basis for her catchy songs' lyrics. The Lavender Haze singer has preserved one photo among her "happy possessions" as a daily reminder of the obstacles she had to overcome in her musical career. While talking with Vanity Fair back in 2013, the Blank Space songstress gave a glimpse of her pricey collections inside her sprawling Nashville abode. "I have no social life," Swift mentioned while leading the publication team up a winding stairwell framed with iconic photographs from her inner circle, which included pictures with actresses Emma Stone and Selena Gomez, Caitlin Evanson, and Hayley Williams of the indie band Paramore. "I need to have pictures of people I love everywhere," Swift explained. She then candidly revealed the most hated picture frame among the lot—a photograph from the embarrassing 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when Kanye West interrupted her acceptance speech for best female video for You Belong with Me by saying, "Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!"
As per Glamour, Swift detailed her feelings about the humiliating night in her diary, "If you had told me that one of the biggest stars in music was going to jump up onstage and announce that he thought I shouldn’t have won on live television, I would’ve said, ‘That stuff doesn’t really happen in real life.' Well… apparently…. It does." As per Billboard oral history, the then-MTV senior correspondent Jesse Montgomery had said, "I wasn't close enough to hear the conversation, but she was pointing in his face and nodding her head back and forth, and giving him her two cents about how fucked up this was and then stormed off. Then he was sitting there next to Amber Rose with his arm around her, and you could feel everyone in Radio City glaring at his back."
He continued, "Because of my relationship with Taylor and her camp, I was going to deal with her. Her mom and she were crying, and I profusely apologized, and I said, 'I'm sorry, we didn't know. I know you have to perform in the next act, and let me think about a way we can make it right for you. We're dealing with him now and I'm so sorry it ruined your moment." The then-Viacom president James Toffler had also stated, "I didn't anticipate I'd have a crying artist and mom to deal with—literally right before she has to go out on Sixth Avenue and stand on a car and sing her song."
As per The Things, the awards night did end on a nice note, though, because when Beyoncé walked up on stage to accept a different award, she invited Taylor back up to continue her speech that Kanye had interrupted. However, Swift's recall of the experience is so vivid that she framed the moment forever to motivate herself.
