Katy Perry beats Beyonce to win Best Female Video at MTV VMAs 2014

The music video was originally criticised by Muslim groups when it was released earlier this year

Katy Perry beat off stiff competition from the likes of Beyonce, Iggy Azalea and Lorde to win the coveted Best Female Video award at the MTV VMAs.

The singer was awarded the prize for “Dark Horse”.

The music video caused much controversy when it was initially released in February.

An online petition signed by more than 50,000 Muslims demanded it was pulled from YouTube because of an offending scene, which shows an Islamic necklace burned by lightning shot from Perry’s fingers.

Perry trended on Twitter almost as soon as she arrived on the red carpet. Accompanied by rapper Riff Raff, she paid homage to Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s famous matching denim outfit.

The nominations for the category were as follows:

Best Female Video

Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea, “Problem”

Beyoncé, “Partition”

Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX, “Fancy”

Katy Perry ft. Juicy J, “Dark Horse” WINNER

Lorde, “Royals”