Taylor Swift refused to perform at VMAs unless drag queens in her music video received awards too

Singer won awards for Video of the Year and Video for Good

Taylor Swift refused to perform at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards unless the drag queens featured in her music video for You Need To Calm Down, which won Video of the Year, received awards also.

In the music video, which also won the Video for Good award, the drag queens appear during a “pop queen pageant”, dressed as pop icons including Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Beyoncé and Swift herself.

In addition to inviting all of the video cast onstage after winning the highest honour of the night at Monday night’s VMAs, Swift ensured each of the drag queens won their own engraved Moon Man trophies handed out by the award show.

Trinity K Bone’t, who played Cardi B in the music video, revealed Swift’s insistence that everyone received an award on her Instagram Stories.

“I just want you all to know Taylor Swift made sure that each and every one of us gets two Moon Men for the awards that she won tonight - that she would not perform unless we got awards too,” she said.

Trinity K Bone't says Swift refused to perform unless everyone received Moon Men (Instagram)

“So I am going to have two Moon Men in my house with my name on it for video of the year at the f***ing VMAs.”

While accepting the Video of the Year award, Swift, who opened the show with a performance of You Need To Calm Down, discussed the importance of the Equality Act, which would prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

She said: “Regardless of who we are, regardless of how we identify, at the end of this video there was a petition, and there still is a petition for the Equality Act, which basically just says we all deserve equal rights under the law.

“And, I want to thank everyone who signed that petition because it now has half a million signatures, which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White House.”