'There was a lot of begging but fortunately she agreed to stay and Beyoncé agreed to do a wonderfully gracious thing,' Toffler said.Īnyone who was old enough to remember will recall the controversy that followed West's crashing.

The producers indicated that, by suggesting this moment, both Swift and Bey agreed to stay and not immediately leave the venue instead. To calm Beyoncé down and suggest how the whole situation could be rectified, Toffler says he let her know she was likely to win another award that evening so things could come full circle and Swift might be able to get her moment on stage. Such is the significance of the cultural moment that Billboardhas published an oral history of the event from the points of view of the producers and MTV staff plus reporters who witnessed the scene unfolding before their very eyes.

He grabbed the mic from the country music singer and proclaimed that because Beyoncé had one of the 'best videos of all time' with 'Single Ladies' she should have won instead. But, incase you need a refresher: A 19-year-old Swift had been awarded the VMA for best female video when a sunglasses and leather shirt-clad West took it on himself to storm the stage. Much like when people ask where you were during the moon landing of 1969, the 'Imma-Let-You-Finish-But' moment by West has been entrenched in pop culture history. It's been almost 10 years since Kanye West stormed Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs, to claim that Beyoncé should have been awarded the Moon Man figurine instead.

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