In 2009, Taylor Swift won Best Female Video of the Year at the VMAs for her adorable, pop track “You Belong With Me.” To date, the video has 779,314,619 views. Swift beat out Queen B’s “Single Ladies,” Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” and Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold.” As she was accepting her award, Kanye West decided that instead of letting Swift have her moment, he would take the microphone from her and told the world that Beyoncé should have won.
But Swift already racked up nominations and awards before the 2009 VMAs. In 2007, she was nominated for New Female Vocalist of the Year and the Academy of Country Music awards, an award she won a year later.
In 2008, she won Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year at the Country Music Association Awards. She won Breakthrough Video of the Year for “Tim McGraw” in 2007, Female Video of the Year for “Our Song” in 2009 and Video of the Year in 2008 and 2009 at the CMT Music Awards. She was also nominated for a Grammy award for Best New Artist in 2008.
I will admit, Taylor Swift’s career took off in 2009, the same year Kanye interrupted her. But it had nothing to do with Kanye West. She was already set on track to become the star she is today. If Kanye contributed anything to Taylor’s career, it was giving her a reason to write passionate, best-selling songs that describe what a hateful person Kanye is. In 2009, Taylor was already making headlines with best-selling albums and singles. Today, she is an icon, and I’m not saying that as a die-hard Taylor fan. Everyone knows who she is, whether you like her or not. Everyone may know of her ongoing drama with Kanye, but it would be hard to convince many people that Kanye made her famous.
