PA ImagesTaylor Swift had a record-breaking weekend at the American Music Awards, taking home six awards and ultimately beating Michael Jackson’s previous record.
As well as being named Artist of the Decade, the singer won the biggest prize of the night, Artist of the Year, beating Drake, Ariana Grande, Halsey and Post Malone in the process.
Organisers confirmed Swift’s new awards took her all-time total to 29, surpassing Michael Jackson’s previous decade-old record of 24 with ease.
PA ImagesThis is the fifth time the singer has accepted the coveted artist of the year prize, previously winning in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2018. While accepting the award at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater, Swift acknowledged that 2019 had had its ups and downs.
She told the crowd that while she had had ‘some of the most amazing times’ in the past 12 months, she’d also experienced some of the ‘hardest things I’ve gone through in my life’.
Swift thanked her fans for being the ‘thing that has been the constant’ in her life, before saying the industry was ‘weird’ because it left her feeling like ‘people either like you or they don’t or you’re feeling bad about yourself’.
We're not crying, you're crying. Huge congratulations to @taylorswift13 for winning #AMAs Artist of the Year! 👏 pic.twitter.com/A0OnN7hFJm
— American Music Awards (@AMAs) November 25, 2019
The artist of the decade honour was announced well before Sunday night’s ceremony, with Swift having prepared a medley of her biggest hits to perform on the night.
However, this was thrown into uncertainty when the artist publicly accused prominent talent manager Scooter Braun of refusing permission for her to sing her old songs at the AMAs.
In the end, she was able to perform songs like Love Story and Blank Space, although she did make a nod to the feud; Swift kicked off her set wearing a prison-style white shirt, stencilled with the names of the six albums her old label owns.
She also made a point of singing The Man, a song about women’s struggle to be taken as seriously as men in the music industry.
PA ImagesSwift also won favourite pop/rock album for her latest album Lover, while also taking home: Favourite Music Video for You Need to Calm Down; Favourite Female Artist (Pop/Rock); and Favourite Artist (Adult Contemporary).
Her wins make her the most successful AMAs artist ever, dethroning Michael Jackson whose most recent prizes were awarded posthumously in 2009 for Favourite Album Number Ones (Pop/Rock), Favourite Male Artist (Pop/Rock), Favourite Male Artist (Soul/R&B) and Favourite Album (Soul/R&B).
Congrats, Taylor!
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).