Swift was seen smiling as she turned to friend Jack Antonoff, who pointed at her
Perry, 39, received the Video Vanguard Award on Wednesday, Sept. 11 , and in her acceptance speech, quipped that the LGBTQ+ community had taught her “that you can be both kind and c—.”
In a moment that quickly went viral on social media, Swift, 34, seemed to agree. When Perry said the line, Swift was caught on video shared by Bustle turning to her friend and collaborator Jack Antonoff, who was seated beside her, and smiling. Antonoff, 40, then pointed to the “Anti-Hero” singer as she nodded.
Swift was seen dancing and singing along to Perry’s hits like “E.T.,” “Teenage Dream” and “California Gurls” as the Vanguard winner performed a medley of her biggest songs. The support from the crowd came months after Perry caught an Eras Tour show in Sydney, Australia, in March.
The “Firework” singer shared a photo of herself backstage with Swift during the Eras tour, along with video of herself singing along to “Bad Blood,” which is thought to be about their previously rocky friendship.
Perry opened up in 2020 about why she and Swift decided to put aside their differences, telling Howard Stern the two were now “super friendly.”
“Gossip in life can take the elevator but the truth takes the stairs. It just takes time,” Perry said at the time, adding that their feud was exaggerated by the media.
“What I’m so grateful for is we did get to make up publicly and got to be an example of redemption for young girls,” she continued. “I always wanted the best for her and now we can talk about the best we want for each other.”
Swift headed into the VMAs as the most-nominated artist of the night, with 12 nominations, and went home with wins in the video of the year, best collaboration, song of the summer, artist of the year, best pop, best direction and best editing categories.
“There is a very clear reason why Post Malone is everyone in music’s favorite person,” she said onstage while accepting the best collaboration win. “You are so ridiculously talented, you are so versatile and you are the most down to earth person. Honestly so unfailingly polite, it has taken me forever to get him to stop calling me ma’am.”
In response, Malone joked, “Yes, ma’am,” and said that Swift “is absolutely one of the most kind and talented people I’ve ever had the honor of knowing.”
The 2024 MTV VMAs aired on Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. ET/ PT live from the UBS Arena in New York.