Here are some photos of Taylor Swift at last night’s VMAs. She wore a Tamara Ralph dress which follows this weird trend of “two fabrics which have nothing to do with one another.” I would have liked this if the whole thing had been the sleek black fabric. Taylor came solo, or rather, her husband did not join her at the VMAs.
Anyway, Taylor received a special VMA last night: the inaugural Artist Director Honors, something to honor Taylor’s work directing her own music videos. If this sounds like something they made up for Taylor specifically, you would be correct. MTV did not even hide it – the VMA’s executive producer told the AP that: “The Artist Director Honor really is an extension of the [Video] Vanguard [Award… And in many ways, even larger in stature because it was an idea that, quite frankly, the kernel of the idea came from external. I’ll leave it at that.” “From external” meaning that Taylor and her team pressured MTV to make up a special award for her to get her to turn up. MTV ended up giving the OG Video Vanguard Award to Nirvana.
Taylor was also there to premiere her music video for “Patient Zero,” the new single from The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore. The MV stars Dakota Johnson, Colin Farrell and there’s a cameo from Cara Delevingne. Unfortunately, Taylor left some Easter eggs in the video to indicate (to her fans) that Joe Alwyn was poisoning her. Joe Alwyn was not poisoning her and it’s really shocking that Taylor will continue to say nothing while her fans rant about that online. Taylor has spent three-plus years trying to rewrite the Alwyn relationship and every single time she makes an oblique reference to Joe, he’s never responded. That alone is driving her crazy. (I’ll replace the video when Taylor’s channel posts the official music video, which she had not done as of this writing.)
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Celebrities attends the MTV Video Music Awards 2026 held at the Peacock Theatre Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Los Angeles, United States When: 27 Sep 2026 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Celebrities attends the MTV Video Music Awards 2026 held at the Peacock Theatre Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Los Angeles, United States When: 27 Sep 2026 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Celebrities attends the MTV Video Music Awards 2026 held at the Peacock Theatre Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Los Angeles, United States When: 27 Sep 2026 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Celebrities attends the MTV Video Music Awards 2026 held at the Peacock Theatre Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Los Angeles, United States When: 27 Sep 2026 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Celebrities attends the MTV Video Music Awards 2026 held at the Peacock Theatre Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Los Angeles, United States When: 27 Sep 2026 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Celebrities attends the MTV Video Music Awards 2026 held at the Peacock Theatre Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Los Angeles, United States When: 27 Sep 2026 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Celebrities attends the MTV Video Music Awards 2026 held at the Peacock Theatre Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Los Angeles, United States When: 27 Sep 2026 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Celebrities attends the MTV Video Music Awards 2026 held at the Peacock Theatre Featuring: Taylor Swift Where: Los Angeles, United States When: 27 Sep 2026 Credit: Doug Peters/PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I saw the picture and thought, OHHHHH She looks good. And then scrolled down. It looks to like a beach towel draped around her. All that money – GET A STYLIST my dear!
I like her but girl that’s a swimsuit AND a beach towl. Get better clothes. Also it’s the VMAs, so it’s whatever, but she could also use some hairstyling that’s just not straight hair. It’s so boring.
The top part could be a swimsuit so maybe there is a theme!
Didn’t she make reference to ppl saying exactly this about her in that awful. spoken word “song?” Too funny!!
Is it just me, or does Ms. Swift seem to have exceeded the peak of her Starling curve?
Taylor looked divine in that outfit with her height. You can’t go by still photos. Just watching her glide up on stage in all her long-legged glory with her slender frame in that gown, was a vision to my eyes. Her shorter hair/wig was the icing on the cake. It enhanced the outfit. She knocked it out of the park. Her body was bangin’ in it. It was perfect for an award show like the VMAs for music stars and music video awards. It’s not the Oscars.
It’s not a wig?
She’s looks really good I cannot hate. Gorgeous. Music sucks but she’s a beautiful young woman and as I said before I always love to see women succeed in the business side of an industry that usually chews and spits them out.
“Taylor came solo, or rather, her husband did not join her at the VMAs.” Because her husband was working. He had a game in Miami yesterday.
I like the dress, she looks really curvy in it. A nice change in a sea of waifs. But tge song and the video are bad, like really bad.
How much did Taylor pay MTV for the extension of the Video Vanguard award?
When I saw the video I thought – I love that she gives us a bigger story (poisoning) than the song, for dramatic effect.
Also as a minor league swiftie this whole scenario reads gylenhal to me.
But that is the parasocial fun of it.
The drama!
And I gave no issue with Taylor’s people saying – no she’s not coming unless you do a special thing and she can premiere a thing. Like her or not – she is a BIG DEAL in the business.
Of course I also thought she looked beautiful, so what do I know.
I will say as an old Gen X-er seeing Madonna and nirvana – was lovely and a little weird.
I am weary of pretty much all TS at this point. I loved Folklore and Evermore and I will sing along to whatever, but I can’t get invested in the new four songs released last week…..first off…girl, you are married now and it is a whole new chapter. And Pink Clouding is supposedly about Tom H and how badly she treated him and how bad she feels….grow up. He is married with two kids, he is not thinking about you.
Also, and this is petty and I am bitter……. we were all pretty much invested in her ‘English teacher marrying the gym teacher’…and getting married became her whole personality and she was happy to trot that out for us and she loves her fans and is so thrilled that her fans are so invested in this, and this is the happiest she has ever been…and then crickets. And now here is new music about how she was left broken hearted years ago, and then in Cleveland! its about how everyone bullied her in high school….and we haven’t seen one wedding dress photo. Girl, no. Yes you have a right to privacy, but you very willingly took all of us along for the most of the ride….we don’t want new music about your teen age boyfriends, we want a damn wedding dress photo.
@KATHGAL Agree with everything you wrote. Especially this: “we don’t want new music about your teen age boyfriends, we want a damn wedding dress photo.”
Am I the only one who thinks she’s planning to release their wedding video (aka full length movie) in theaters sometime this year (or next) and doesn’t want to give her fans even a glimpse until they see it in theaters?
I’m not a Swiftie, but based on her past moves, it feels like she might be planning to release a new album at the same time as her wedding movie release (?) (Honestly, it seems strange (even to me, a non-Swiftie), that she hasn’t shared wedding pics with her fans yet… just my opinion).
That said, I think she looked fabulous (and very grown up) in that dress last night. Her styling was great, too.
I keep seeing these “you’re married now, stop writing songs about your exes” takes and something about them rubs me the wrong way.
In part, I think it’s that I’ve never seen these criticisms levied against male recording artists: their current relationship statuses never seem to have any bearing on whether people think they are entitled to write or perform love songs, break-up songs, ex songs, etc.
But I also think there’s a weird “women who are married need to behave in certain ways” cultural thing behind these comments – even if the commenters aren’t explicitly aware that’s what is shaping at least some of their discomfort with Swift still mining her life (and let’s face it, likely embellishing quite a bit – as most artists who use rea life inspo do!)
To me, there’s a trad-wife undercurrent to this criticism of Taylor – even though I think most people saying this would never explicitly be in favor of tradwife stuff. But there’s a reason tradwifing became so trendy in the US – our society is so hugely entrenched in patriarchy anyway, it’s hard even for liberals to fully break free (despite being one of the oldest democracies, we remain one of the very few to never have a female head of state, for instance).
And suggesting that certain topics, etc., are off-limits or distasteful once a woman is married, seems steeped in patriarchy (again, I’m not seeing any if these criticisms levied at male performers when their relationship statuses change.)
And even at just the most basic level, there’s a reason why so much art ends at the start of the happily ever after…that’s a delightful stage to live in, but a boring stage to create art about.
Anyway, for those who think TS needs to fully leave her single life behind now that she is married, and especially the implications that she now needs to focus her art on sharing her marriage and married life…why?
Why should her entire identity and brand changed just because she and her partner are now legally wed?
I agree with this take from start to finish. Also, Travis is clearly not too fragile or insecure to hear his wife singing about her exes. Let’s stop worrying about his wittle feelings.
I don’t like her music and try to remain neutral on her public persona, but it seems like she never got over Joe Alwyn? Do others, especially SwiftKey, agree?
Not at all. She broke up with him and the reading of their relationship in this post is very, very odd. She’s not ‘leaving easter eggs to say he poisoned her’. The music video is depicting a toxic relationship in which she was metaphorically dying. That’s her emotional truth and she has a right to say that. That doesn’t mean she’s ‘rewriting her relationship and ‘being driven crazy’. Very bizarre,
She should have worn it like it looked originally on the runway. For some reason they added length which it didn’t need. The draping doesn’t look as nice at floor length. It ruins the entire look of the OG design.
No, her husband didn’t come because he’s actually employed and was at his job.
Yes, Joe Alwyn poisoned her, that’s what she is saying. It’s not a metaphor, it was actual poison. *sigh*
She’s the one who was in the relationship so whether it’s rewriting or saying what she actually felt and was going on is a topic of conversation.
Thank you. What happened to believe women…?
The fit is nice on her but the mix of fabrics especially the sheer mesh on the back is not good
About Joe Alwyn never responding … that’s the best revenge. Totally ignoring it. It’s saying: I don’t care enough to even respond.
I mean the rumor is he signed an NDA for a payoff/split of assets after the relationship ended. So if that is true, he can’t say anything.
Quite possibly. If that’s true, it kind of sucks for him, though. She gets to reference their relationship over and over again in her work and he can’t say a word to defend himself.
I am sure if he wanted to write a song and make illusions she wouldn’t stop him (other past boyfriends have done so) and she has never outright said any of this is about him and the fans can’t even agree. I have heard theories about at least 4 potential muses for Patient Zero.
Swift herself said that she came up with the song when she was with a group of girlfriends realizing a guy did the same toxic behaviors to each girl.
aka, it has to be someone they ALL dated, so Joe Jonas
Chris Martin dated both Sophie Turner and Dakota Johnson..
I know she won a VMA for the The Fate of Ophelia. But the music video choreography that Yung Lean had that group of teenage boys (?) perform for the song Storm was absolutely amazing. And the live performance on the VMA stage was just as incredible. There’s a reason that music video went viral organically in a way none of Taylor’s has. I really wished it had won! I just rewatched The Fate of Ophelia and it’s definitely an entertaining music video with a storyline: multiple set pieces, costume changes, dance numbers (with let’s be honest meh choreo). But Taylor has made different versions of that video several times over and it was nothing groundbreaking for her.
The Yung Lean music video choreography was original, inventive, and so creative. Which just goes to show the VMAs has always been a popularity contest.
I respect and admire TS. I wish people would understand that being a musician and a lyricist is her job. God forbid she go to work? I don’t understand the constant ranting about her making albums, writing songs, releasing songs, videos, etc… It’s her damn job. I don’t hear people ranting about people in other professions going to work everyday.
As for her dress last night. I thought she looked beautiful.
I do not think this is literally about Joe Alwyn poisoning her. No. I thought the song itself was probably about Joe Jonas, but the video storyline feels fictional! Not about a real thing that happened!
Although I have seen some talk that it’s referring to things that happened in the music industry (like My Tears Ricochet and Father Figure) so it could be metaphors about that.
The hair is so boring I wanna die.
Love the dress though!