Camila Cabello made her highly anticipated return to the MTV Video Music Awards stage on Wednesday (Sept. 11).

On the heels of delivering her C,XOXO (Magic City Edition) deluxe earlier in September, Cabello has stepped into a new era as she traded out the blonde hair for her natural brunette locks. Along with jumping to the dark side, the Fifth Harmony alum snuck in a shortened version of “June Gloom” to serve as the pensive introduction leading into her stirring “Godspeed” performance.

Wearing a ripped white dress and strappy heels, the singer stepped into a glass case along with the camera set up on a tripod and a laptop that she eventually smashes in frustration. She worked the camera and got up close and personal to sing directly to the millions watching at home.

The 27-year-old hopped out and showed off the climbing octaves of her impressive mezzo-soprano vocal range while bidding farewell to a toxic ex lover. She’s then surrounded by a team of mysterious dancers to bring the performance across the finish line.

Billboard caught up with the singer on the red carpet before the show, where she detailed how she’s cutting ties with everything that’s not bringing positivity to her.

“I’m in my ‘Godspeed’ era, and that song is very much about letting go of everything that does not serve you. So I kind of am having a funeral today for just everything that is negative, everything that doesn’t serve me,” she explained. “Death to the things that are negative, death to the people and the situations that try to bring you down.”

C,XOXO was released in June via Geffen Records with assists from Playboi Carti, Lil Nas X, JT and Yung Miami, BLP Kosher and Drake. The LP reached a peak of No. 13 on the Billboard 200.

Taylor Swift has won the grand prize of the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, taking home video of the year for her self-directed “Fortnight” music video on Wednesday (Sept. 11). And while she was giving her acceptance speech, she made sure to thank Travis Kelce as well as remind fans to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

After taking her newest Moon Person from host and presenter Megan Thee Stallion and directing duet partner Post Malone to join her on the stage, the 34-year-old pop star told the crowd that “directing this video and putting it together and writing it was the most wonderful experience.”

She also shouted out Dead Poets Society actors Ethan Hawke and Josh Charles, “who were amazing cameos” in the visual, as well as director of photography Rodrigo Prieto for going “out of his way to work with female directors.” “This video seems very sad when you watch it, but it was actually the most fun video to make,” Swift continued before detailing an adorable on-set memory from the shoot.

“I would always just hear someone cheering, like, ‘Whoo!’ from across the studio — that one person was my boyfriend, Travis,” the 14-time Grammy winner recalled, earning piercing screams from fans in the crowd at New York’s UBS Arena. “Everything this man touches turns to happiness and fun and magic, so I want to thank him for adding that to our shoot.”

The “Karma” singer also made sure to give fans their well-earned shout-out for supporting her global Eras Tour and The Tortured Poets Department album rollout, which included the LP reigning at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a record 15 weeks. Then, propelled by the momentum of her headline-making Kamala Harris endorsement from the day prior, Swift left fans with an important reminder.

“If you’re over 18, please register vote for something else very important that’s coming up,” she said with a pointed smile.

Earlier that night, Swift and Posty also won best collaboration for the “Fortnight” video, which dropped April 19 alongside TTPD. After Wednesday night, the musician — who was the most nominated person at the 2024 ceremony — is now the VMAs’ most-awarded artist in history.

GloRilla may have been new to the VMAs, but the Memphis-bred MC made a splashy debut at MTV awards show Wednesday (Sept. 11) with a tough-as-nails medley that proved she’d earned her four nominations and primo performance spot near the end of the three-hour telecast.

Dressed in a floor-length pinstriped black overcoat and matching baseball hat, the rapper opened with her crunk-inspired smash “Yeah Glo!,” which hit No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 earlier this year, while running up to No. 7 on the hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart and cracking the No. 1 spot on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay tally.

With a crew of six black leather duster-clad dancers stomping circles around her, Glo spit the hard-hitting lyrics from the song that anchored her second mixtape, Ehhthang Ehhtang, before the lights went out and she flipped the script to dip into her other 2024 hit, “TGIF.” Stripping down to a black business-casual bikini with silver accents and necktie while her long blonde ponytail whipped around behind her, the MC turned the digital cubical farm behind her into a sweaty nightclub.

Walking down the desklike catwalk with similarly dressed dancers pounding on the table, Glo turned all the way up while the women tossed funny money into the air. “Turnt up with my n—as/ Turnt up with my b—hes,” GloRilla rapped on the chorus that found Camila Cabello and Shaboozey lip-synching enthusiastically in the audience, as she put on a twerking clinic on the jam that pushed up to No. 2 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart in July.

She even survived what appeared to be a near-wardrobe malfunction near the end of the medley that had a dancer re-hooking her bra as Glo smiled and struck a triumphant, joyous pose.

Chappell Roan is taking her first-ever MTV Video Music Award hot to go. Following a stand-out performance of “Good Luck, Babe!” at the 2024 awards ceremony, the 26-year-old pop star won best new artist Wednesday night (Sept. 11), a moment she dedicated to all of the people in the LGBTQ+ community who continuously propel her to new heights.

“Can you believe it? We’re at the VMAs!” Roan cheered after accepting her Moon Person from Tinashe, covering her face with disbelief as fans at New York’s UBS Arena applauded.

“I dedicate this to all the drag artists who inspire me, and I dedicate this to queer and trans people who fuel pop,” she continued, reading from a small journal she took with her on stage. “To the gays, who dedicate my songs to someone they love or hate … for all the queer kids in the midwest watching right now, I see you. I understand you, because I am one of you.”

After thanking her label, Island Records, Roan — wearing a medieval knight-inspired chainmail hood to match her Joan of Arc theme of the night — left the crowd with one last message. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t be exactly who you want to be, b—h,” she said with a smirk.

The 2024 VMAs were held at UBS Arena and hosted by Megan Thee Stallion. Eminem opened the show, Vanguard honoree Katy Perry performed a career-spanning medley of her hits, and everyone from Lenny Kravitz to Halsey, Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes and Rauw Alejandro delivered performances.

In addition to best new artist — for which Roan beat out Tyla and Gracie Abrams — the Missouri native was also up for MTV push performance of the year for The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess‘ fan-favorite track “Red Wine Supernova.” Taylor Swift led the nominations with a total of 12, while her “Fortnight” collaborator Post Malone followed with 11.

Prior to accepting her Moon Person, Roan brought the heat on stage with a fiery performance of her breakout single “Good Luck, Babe!” Dressed in a suit of armor, the vocalist lit a castle on fire with a flaming crossbow without missing a single note of the track, which reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August.

Taylor Swift isn’t the only famous cat lady throwing her support behind Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and VP candidate Tim Walz. In a missive posted to Instagram on Wednesday night (Sept. 11), Linda Ronstadt gave the two her endorsement, but not before writing a scathing screed directed at former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump,  who is holding a rally Thursday (Sept. 12) in a Tucson, Arizona hall named after the legendary singer. 

“It saddens me to see the former President bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican-American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit,” Ronstadt, who included a photo of her holding a kitten, writes. 

“I don’t just deplore his toxic politics, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty and ignorance — although there’s that,” the member of the 2014 Rock & Roll of Hall continues. “For me it comes down to this:  In Nogales and across the southern border, the Trump Administration systematically ripped apart migrant families seeking asylum. Family separation made orphans of thousands of little children and babies, and brutalized their desperate mothers and fathers. It remains a humanitarian catastrophe that Physicians for Human Rights said met the criteria for torture.”

Ronstadt, whose father was of Mexican descent, goes on to further castigate Trump, closing with “Trump first ran for President warning about rapists coming in from Mexico. I’m worried about keeping the rapist out of the White House.”

But she wasn’t done. She also adds a pointed postscript directed toward Trump’s running mate, the Republic vice president nominee, J.D. Vance:  “I raised two adopted children in Tucson as a single mom. They are both grown and living in their own houses. I live with a cat. Am I half a childless cat lady because I’m unmarried and didn’t give birth to my kids? Call me what you want, but this cat lady will be voting proudly in November for @kamalaharris and @timwalz .”