On September 13, 2009, rap and hip-hop artist Kanye West upstaged country singer Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards when he interrupted her acceptance speech for Best Female Video. West walked onto the stage, took the microphone from Swift, and told the audience: “Taylor, I’m really happy for you. I’ll let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!” The moment shocked the live audience and quickly became one of the most widely discussed award-show controversies of the decade. Many viewers, celebrities, and media commentators criticized West for humiliating Swift during what should have been her acceptance moment.
West was reportedly booed and asked to leave the awards ceremony. He first apologized to Swift through a blog post, then addressed the controversy again during an appearance on the premiere of The Jay Leno Show. In that interview, West said he immediately knew what he had done was wrong, described the interruption as rude, and acknowledged that he had hurt Swift’s emotions. He also framed the incident within his own exhaustion, grief, and need to take time away from constant performing and touring. West later apologized to Swift directly by phone. His responses combined mortification with transcendence, bolstering, and corrective action by admitting wrongdoing, appealing to his desire to help artists, discussing a broader need for personal reflection, and promising to apologize personally.
“Yeah, it’s been extremely difficult just dealing with the fact that I hurt someone or took anything away, you know, from a talented artist or from anyone ’cause I only wanted to help people, you know. My entire life, I’ve only wanted to give and do something that I felt was right. And I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong and it wasn’t a spectacle it’s actually someone’s emotions, you know, that I stepped on. It was very it was rude, period. And, you know, I’d like to be able to apologize to her in person, and, you know, I’m going to do.”
“Obviously, you know I deal with hurt, and, you know, so many, you know, celebrities, they never take the time off, and I’ve never taken the time off to really music after music and tour after tour and tour, and I’m just ashamed that my hurt caused, you know, someone else’s hurt my dream of what award shows were supposed to be And I don’t try to justify it because I was just in the wrong [indistinct]. That’s a period.
But I need to, after this, take some time off and just analyze how I’m going to,
you know, make it through the rest of this life, how I’m going to improve because I am a celebrity, and that’s something I have to deal with.
And if there’s anything I could do to help Taylor [Swift] in the future, or help anyone I want to live this thing, it’s hard, you know”
