Snubs & Surprises at the 2024 VMAs

Taylor Swift and Eminem both made history at the 2024 VMAs, which were held at UBS Arena in New York on Wednesday (Sept. 11).

Swift won seven awards, which brings her career total of Moonpersons to an even 30. This enables her to sprint past Beyoncé as the top winner in the show’s history. Eminem won two awards, which allows him to pull ahead of Peter Gabriel as the top male winner in the show’s history.

A lot of the awards went as expected. Coming off a historic run of success in the past two years, it was likely that Swift would maintain her dominance, as she did. Eminem’s win for best hip-hop and SZA’s win for best R&B were also no surprises. Both artists topped the Billboard 200 with their most recent albums. Tyla’s “Water,” a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, was also a strong bet to win best Afrobeats.

It was also no surprise that women did well overall in the voting. This is the seventh year in a row that a woman has won best new artist; the sixth year in a row that a woman has won video for good; the fifth year in a row that a woman artist has won song of the year; and the fourth year in a row that a woman has won best Latin. The last male artist to win the Video Vanguard Award was Ye, then still known as Kanye West, in 2015.

But that doesn’t mean there were no surprises on the show. Here are the biggest snubs and surprises at the 2024 VMAs.