The Comprehensive Guide of Kanye West Award Show Mishaps
by Quentin Holle
Ever since he burst onto the music scene, the artist formerly known as Kanye West can be best described with one word.
Controversial.
Everyone remembers the Taylor Swift incident, but the 2009 VMA incident was not the first nor last incident where Kanye West had an outburst at an award show.
The 2004 American Music Awards
In 2004, Kanye West faced his first ever major controversy. West was snubbed at the American Music Awards when he lost the Best New Artist award to a country singer named Gretchen Wilson. Following the announcement of the award, Kanye stormed out, and was quoted as saying “I was the best new artist this year… I was definitely robbed, and I refuse to give any politically correct bullshit-ass comment. I was the best new artist this year.”
The 2006 Grammy Awards
Following the Grammy nominations in 2006, West went on the record to state that he would “really have a problem” if he didn’t win Album Of the Year at that year’s Grammy awards. He proceeded to lose to U2’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.
The 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards
After his song “Touch the Sky” lost the Best Video category at the MTV Europe Music Awards to Justice & Simian’s “We Are Your Friends,” Kanye decided to take matters into his own hands. He took to the stage and began to argue that he should have won the award instead in the middle of the group’s acceptance speech, foreshadowing a certain future event…
Something super interesting about this incident is that Kanye West nearly jeopardized the release of his song “Stronger,” which samples Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger.” Daft Punk’s manager, Pedro Winter, happens to be the manager for Justice as well. When Kanye went to Pedro Winter to ask if he could sample Daft Punk for “Stronger,” Pedro Winter scared Kanye by telling him that he was the manager for Justice, the band that he freaked out at during the MTV Awards. Kanye recanted his criticism of Justice, and went on to be a major fan, appearing in their 2008 documentary “A Cross the Universe” after the incident.
The 2007 MTV Video Music Awards
When writing his classic track “Stronger,” Kanye West alleged that his goal was to one day open the VMA’s with the track. In 2007, it was announced that Britney Spears was going to open the VMA’s. West took offense to this, stating that his race may have had something to do with him being overlooked as the opener to the awards. However, this wasn’t the worst part of his night. Kanye was nominated for 5 awards at the show, from “Best Male Artist” to “Video of the Year.” He lost each and every award to other artists. Following the show, Kanye was dejected. He went on the record to claim that he would “never return to MTV.” He proved himself wrong in 2009, when Kanye West returned to the VMA’s, where he quite possibly faced his biggest controversy ever.
The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards
This day is quite possibly one of the most formative days in Kanye West’s career. Beyoncé was nominated for multiple music video awards for “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),” including the Best Female Video and Best Video of the Year awards. Taylor Swift was nominated for Best Female Video for her classic song and music video “You Belong with Me,” but not Best Video of the Year. The expectation for the night was that Beyoncé would cede the Best Female Video award to Taylor Swift, so she could be the runaway winner of the more prestigious Best Video of the Year instead.
Following his mother’s tragic death, Kanye West took to drinking to ease the pain. When he traveled to the VMA’s that year, he brought along with him a bottle of Hennessy. As the night went on, he became more and more drunk. As Taylor Swift was announced as the winner of the Best Female Video category for her music video, Kanye West knew he had to do something about the situation.
“Thank you so much!! I always dreamed about what it would be like to maybe win one of these someday, but I never thought it actually would have happened. I sing country music. So thank you so much for giving me the chance to win a VMA Award! I…”
The drunk Kanye rushed the stage from his front-row spot.
“Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish. But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
This moment went down in history. The crowd was horrified. The camera cut to Beyoncé, who was in shock. The crowd began booing Kanye, as he handed the microphone back to Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift, in disbelief, didn’t know what to say. The awards swiftly cut to commercials, and Kanye headed back to his seat, where he was scolded by everyone around him. During the break, Kanye West was escorted out by MTV. Backstage, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé both cried. It was a travesty.
In the wake of the event, Kanye went out for dinner, as if nothing happened, and wrote a hilarious public apology on his own blog.
“I’m sooooo sorry to taylor swift and her fans and her mom. I spoke to her mother right after and she said the same thing my mother would’ve said. She is very talented! I like the lyrics about being a cheerleader and she’s in the bleachers! i’m in the wrong for going on stage and taking away from her moment!. beyonce’s video was the best of this decade! I’m sorry to my fans if I let you guys down! I’m sorry to my friends at mtv. I will apologize to taylor 2mrw. welcome to the real world! everybody wanna booooo me but i’m a fan of real pop culture! No disrespect but we watchin’ the show at the crib right now cause … well you know! i’m still happy for taylor! Boooyaaawwww! you are very very talented! I gave my awards to outkast when they deserved it over me… that’s what it is!! i’m not crazy yall, i’m just real. Sorry for that! I really feel bad for taylor and i’m sincerely sorry! Much respect!!”
A bit after this apology, Kanye revealed that he wrote a song for Taylor, and if she did not accept the song, he would perform it himself. There’s a large chance that this song developed into “Famous” off of Kanye’s The Life Of Pablo, which reignited the beef between the two.
This event is integral to the story of Kanye and early 2010s pop culture as a whole. Taylor Swift went from a budding new artist to a household name overnight. Twitter surged in popularity due to this event, and became a powerful social media platform instantly. Celebrities around the world had some choice words for Kanye.
Katy Perry tweeted “FUCK U KANYE. IT’S LIKE U STEPPED 0N A KITTEN.”
Kanye made an enemy with the president, when Barack Obama was caught on a hot mic calling Kanye “a jackass.”
Donald Trump also had something to say on the event, calling on his online following to “boycott Kanye West.”
My personal favorite response from a celebrity regarding the incident was from Kelly Clarkson:
"I mean, I've seen you do some pretty shitty things, but you just keep amazing me with your tactless, asshole ways. It's absolutely fascinating how much I don't like you. I like everyone. I even like my asshole ex that cheated on me [more than I like] you.”
Following public outrage, West would go into hiding, secretly creating his most critically-acclaimed album: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
The 2015 Grammy Awards
While Beck was receiving his award for Album Of The Year, Kanye West decided it would be a great idea to walk on stage and interrupt an acceptance speech. He must have realized it was a bad idea halfway through execution though, so he walked off stage before any damage was done. The audience thought Kanye wasn’t being serious and laughed it off. In an interview following the show, Kanye said that “it wasn’t a joke,” that “Beck needs to respect artistry” and finally that Beck “should have given his award to Beyoncé.”
The 2015 MTV Video Music Awards
At this awards show, Kanye won the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. During the acceptance speech, West stated "Y'all might be thinking right now, 'I wonder… did he smoke something before he came out here?' And the answer is: 'Yes, I rolled up a little something. I knocked the edge off.'" Capping off the end of his speech, Kanye announced something that would shock the world: “I have decided in 2020 to run for president.” He stayed true to his promise, and in 2020 he ran a campaign, not as a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, instead choosing to run as a candidate for his new political party named the “Birthday Party.”
The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards
For some reason, event organizers decided that it would be a great idea to give Kanye four minutes to “do whatever he wanted” in the awards show this year. He decided to use these four minutes wisely, discussing shootings in Chicago, his love for Beyoncé, the Taylor Swift incident, and his new song “Famous,” which stirred up major controversy once again. You’d think that the beef between Taylor Swift and Kanye West would be squashed in the 7 years since the VMA incident occurred, but to Kanye, it wasn't. West decided to make the song “Famous” in which he claimed that he was the reason behind Taylor Swift’s fame. In the song, Kanye claims many things, even going as far to say: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex // Why? I made that bitch famous.” Taylor Swift was understandably frustrated with the song, and Taylor Swift’s legal team threatened legal action if the music video was released. Kim Kardashian took to social media to post an allegedly un-edited phone call between the two, in which Swift approved of the song. The phone call was recorded without Taylor Swift’s consent, which is illegal in California.
This wasn’t the end of the drama revolving around this song, however, with the music video featuring wax figures of West himself, Kim Kardashian, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, Rihanna, Chris Brown, Ray J, Caitlyn Jenner, and Bill Cosby, among others, all naked in bed together. The reason that West chose to do this is unknown, but the use of Taylor Swift’s likeness in a negative and harmful manner reignited the drama between the two. When the video was released, Kim Kardashian tweeted about a made-up holiday, dubbed “National Snake Day,” directed at Taylor Swift. Following this tweet, the symbol of a snake became a mainstay in Taylor Swift's promotional material, appearing in the promos for her album Reputation. In 2020, Kanye went on a rant on Twitter and said "Not gonna use a snake emoji cause you know why... I'm not sure if Christians are allowed to use snake emoji", showing that even eleven years later Taylor Swift was still living rent-free in his head.
The 2021 Grammy Awards
The most recent stop on Kanye West’s tumultuous award show history is the 2021 Grammy Awards. He was slated to perform, and was nominated for multiple awards, including Album Of The Year. However, he ruined this for himself, by angrily posting online about his recent divorce. Weeks before the award show, he was banned from the event over “concerning online behavior.” As much as I would have loved to see another one of his trademark freakouts, I think the choice to bar him from the event was for the better. If he went on to perform, he would have probably embarrassed himself during one of the most controversial periods of his professional career.