The Shape Of You hitmaker took home the impressive Best Artist and Best Song awards while the South Korean seven members boy band walked away with the Best Pop, Best Group, Best K-Pop, and Biggest Fans awards. Other winners included Yungblud, Eurovision winners Maneskin and Saweetie, who won Best Alternative, Best Rock, and Best New award respectively.
Meanwhile, the best Collaboration was given to Doja Cat ft. SZA for Kiss Me More while David Guetta won Best Electronic and Billie Eilish received the Video for Good award. Taylor Swift won Best US Act and Little Mix Best Act for the U.K. and Ireland. Despite being in the running for a huge eight awards, Justin Bieber walked away empty-handed having not ruled victorious in a single category.
However, Saweetie who changed outfits throughout the night and performed on stage also claimed the Best New prize. Although, in her acceptance speech, the My Type hitmaker addressed, “Thank you to my team who have been working non-stop 24 hours, seven days a week. We work non-stop, really. And it’s been paying off. I am so grateful to my fans, who have been supporting me. Y’all have been riding with me since I’ve been rapping in my car.”
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Meanwhile, Olivia Rodrigo who released her debut album, Sour, in May won the Best Push award, while Maluma was named the Best Latin artist. However, this year’s EMAs show saw the awards return to live broadcasting following the virtual ceremony in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Saweetie served as host for this year’s award ceremony, taking over from Little Mix who presented last year. However, teasing what to expect from the star-studded show, the rapper said in a statement, “Anything can happen at the MTV EMAs. Are you ready?” before she promised there would be surprises in store. Talking about hosting, she told MTV, “I think MTV is fun. It’s innovative, it’s out of the box. And that’s the type of artist I am. So when I got the call to do it, it was a no-brainer.”