Top moments from the 40th MTV Video Music Awards

The 2024 MTV Video Music Awards were held on Wednesday and it was a night of female pop powerhouses, nostalgia and… aliens.

The 2024 MTV Video Music Awards were held on Wednesday and it was a night of female pop powerhouses, nostalgia and… aliens. The reigning women of the charts owned the night with Taylor Swift’s happy award show dance moves making a return, Chappell Roan making her fiery VMA debut, Sabrina Carpenter appearing to make out with an alien and Katy Perry soaring through the air while performing a medley of her greatest hits. There were some men there, too, with Eminem opening the show with a performance of “Houdini” and “Somebody Save Me” and Lenny Kravitz in his signature black leather and revealing shirt performing a new version of his classic hit “Fly Away,” among other songs. Hosted by Grammy-winning rapper Megan Thee Stallion, there was no shortage of notable moments. Here are some of the biggest. Taylor Swift took a moment to honor victims of the September 11 attacks of 2001 while accepting the first award of the evening. “I wanted to say waking up this morning in New York on September 11th, I’ve just been thinking about what happened 23 years ago, everyone who lost a loved one,” she said. “Everyone that we lost and that is the most important thing about today. And everything that happens tonight falls behind that.”