Taylor Swift has made history, officially breaking a music record long held by Michael Jackson.
On Nov. 24, during the 2019 American Music Awards (or AMAs), the 29-year-old went from having 23 AMA trophies to a whopping 29.
She was awarded with not only the ‘Artist of the Decade’ award, but the ‘Artist of the Year’ and ‘Favourite Pop/Rock Album’ awards, among three others.
The previous AMA record was achieved by the late-King of Pop in 2009, where he posthumously won four of the prestigious awards; bringing him to a total of 25.
Though Jackson still owns the No. 2 spot, he previously held the record for years, and even spent years battling the late-Whitney Houston for it.
READ MORE: American Music Awards 2019: Shania Twain covers Drake, Taylor Swift slays and more
In 1984, Jackson became the first artist to ever win eight awards in one night. This came as a result of the success of his seminal sixth solo record, Thriller.
The Billie Jean singer maintained the impressive record for the most AMAs until 1994, where Houston won eight awards — leaving the artists tied at 19 awards each.
Jackson won an additional award in 1996, before Houston brought home another two in ’97.
It wasn’t until 2002, however, that Jackson won the only ever ‘Artist of the Century’ award, making the much-beloved musicians equal once again.
Though both artists were awarded in 2009, Jackson won three more awards than Houston did, putting him on top of the throne for a full decade before Swift claimed it as her own on Sunday.
READ MORE: Scooter Braun breaks silence on Taylor Swift feud
One staggering statistic is Swift’s record of award wins — in the years 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2018 and 2019, the Blank Space singer won every single trophy she was nominated for.
In honour of her ‘Artist of the Decade’ win and overall 2019 AMAs victory, Swift took the stage to perform an explosive career-spanning medley, highlighting some of her most popular hits like Shake It Off, Love Story and I Knew You Were Trouble, among several others.
A couple of weeks before the widely celebrated performance, Swift claimed that it was put in jeopardy by her former manager, Scott Borchetta, and his new partner, Scooter Braun — who manage the musician’s previous record label, Big Machine Records — after they suggested she could not perform any of her old music on live television.
As of Nov. 18, however, a deal cut between Big Machine Records and Dick Clark Productions gave Swift permission to perform any of the songs from her pre-2018 music catalogue again; on any live television performance. So she did.
Comments