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MTV VMAs 2015: Watch Taylor Swift accept her Video of the Year award

Emily St. James
Emily St. James was a senior correspondent for Vox, covering American identities. Before she joined Vox in 2014, she was the first TV editor of the A.V. Club.

Taylor Swift won the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year for her blockbuster “Bad Blood,“ easily the biggest, most hyped music video of the year.

Since the award is decided by popular vote, it was really Swift’s to lose. But even then, it capped a night in which Swift won additional awards for Female Video and Pop Video, along with introducing Kanye West as he accepted his Vanguard Award (sort of the VMA equivalent of a lifetime achievement prize, except usually given to artists in the prime of their careers).

And even thought she dominated the proceedings, the night didn’t feel like a Swift coronation — perhaps because the VMAs are much more about their performances and big moments than anything else.

Still, Swift’s prize felt like the only appropriate note to end the night on. In her speech, she shouted out to her fans, before concluding that it was great to live in a world where “boys can play princesses, and girls can play soldiers.”

Watch the whole speech above.

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