Taylor Swift urges fans to vote as she sets American Music Awards record

28-year-old overtakes Whitney Houston for most wins by female artist at fan-voted show

Taylor Swift has continued her recent foray into US politics as she celebrated a big win at the American Music Awards by urging her fans to vote in the midterm elections in November.

Swift won her fourth artist of the year trophy at the fan-voted awards, beating out Drake, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons and Post Malone.

The 28-year-old also picked up three other awards, for best female pop artist, best tour, and best pop album for “reputation”, which was the biggest seller of 2017.

It brought her to a career total of 23 American Music Awards, meaning she overtook Whitney Houston for the most wins by a female artist at the fan-voted show.

“This award and every single award given out tonight were voted on by the people, and you know what else is voted on by the people - the midterm elections on November 6,” she said.

On Sunday, Swift broke her long-held silence on political matters by taking to Instagram to announce she would vote for two Democrats in Tennessee in the US congressional midterm elections.

Donald Trump reacted to her remarks by saying he liked her music “25 per cent less”.

Swift’s comments drove as spike in voter registration, especially among young people, according to the website Vote.org.

The nonprofit site, which helps people register online, reported more than 250,000 new registrations since Swift’s Instagram post on Sunday. By comparison, the site recorded 57,000 new registrations in all of August, and 190,000 last month.

More than 60 per cent of the registrations since Sunday were among voters between 18 and 29 years old, an increase the site said was likely prompted by her post.

There was a political undercurrent at the AMAs, with the host and Golden Globe-winning actress Tracee Ellis Ross wearing a shirt that read “I am a voter”, and the comedian-actor Billy Eichner telling the audience: “The biggest election of our lifetime is happening.”

“Please grab your friends and tell them to vote. Now is the time. If you believe in equality for women, for people of colour, for the LGBTQ community. If you believe that climate change is real and that we need to do something about it,” the American Horror Story star said onstage before presenting an award.

“And you can go to Vote.org, like Taylor Swift told you to,” he added.