Beyoncé Was Crying Backstage After Kanye West Interrupted Taylor Swift On Stage At The VMAs
An important anniversary is approaching. It's been almost 10 years since Kanye West stormed Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs, to claim that Beyoncé should have been awarded the Moon Man figurine instead.
Much like when people ask where you were during the moon landing of 1969, the 'Imma-Let-You-Finish-But' moment by West has been entrenched in pop culture history.
We all remember the event. But, incase you need a refresher: A 19-year-old Swift had been awarded the VMA for best female video when a sunglasses and leather shirt-clad West took it on himself to storm the stage. He grabbed the mic from the country music singer and proclaimed that because Beyoncé had one of the 'best videos of all time' with 'Single Ladies' she should have won instead.
Awkward factor: 11/10.
Such is the significance of the cultural moment that Billboard has published an oral history of the event from the points of view of the producers and MTV staff plus reporters who witnessed the scene unfolding before their very eyes.
One of the most insightful snippets of information is that it wasn't just Swift who was shaken and saddened by the event. Beyoncé - who was seen mouthing 'Oh Kanye' during the incident - was also left emotional by West's outburst.
'I walk behind the stage and sure enough there is Beyoncé and her dad [and former manager Matthew Knowles] and she is crying. She was like "I didn't know this was going to happen, I feel so bad for her,"' said the former president of Viacom, Van Toffler, who was executive producing the show that evening.
Swift, who had to perform just minutes after West crashed her speech, was also seen crying - along was her mother Andrea, according to the report.
After the commotion, West was asked to leave by the show's organisers. When he initially took his seat again in the front row after walking on stage, he was given an earful by singer Pink.
'I wasn't close enough to hear the conversation, but she was pointing in his face and nodding her head back and forth and giving him her two cents about how f***ed up this was and then stormed off,' James Montgomery, a former correspondent for MTV, told Billboard.
To calm Beyoncé down and suggest how the whole situation could be rectified, Toffler says he let her know she was likely to win another award that evening so things could come full circle and Swift might be able to get her moment on stage. The producers indicated that, by suggesting this moment, both Swift and Bey agreed to stay and not immediately leave the venue instead.
'There was a lot of begging but fortunately she [Swift] agreed to stay and Beyoncé agreed to do a wonderfully gracious thing,' Toffler said.
Anyone who was old enough to remember will recall the controversy that followed West's crashing. President Barack Obama was filmed casually labelling the 'Touch The Sky' rapper a 'jackass', Swift joined Oprah Winfrey to talk about the whole debacle and it was the catalyst for one of the most high-profile and eventful recent feuds in music between West and Swift.
A decade later and the moment is just as remarkable. Case in point: Just the other day I bought a card for my friend, with a note that had written inside: 'Imma Let You Finish But Only 'Cos It's Your Birthday'...
You Might Also Like
