Canadian pop singer Shawn Mendes led the pack at the MTV Europe Music awards on Sunday night, taking home Best Song, Best Artist and Biggest Fans awards, in a show that featured performances from French Montana, The Killers and Kesha.
British R’n’B singer Rita Ora performed the hosting duties, as well as a mash-up of her 2017 hit Your Song, alongside her new single Anywhere. US rap star Eminem opened the show with a performance of his new song Walk on Water, with Skylar Grey standing in for Beyonce to sing the other part in the duet.
The Detroit rapper also took the award for Best Hip Hop, an honour which he appeared to find slightly baffling.
“I’m not really sure how I got this, ’cause I haven’t had an album out in a few years,” he said in his acceptance speech, adding “I got one coming though.”
Look What You Made Me Do, singer Taylor Swift had been the most-nominated star of the evening, with six nominations, but failed to win any awards.
Mendes performed There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back, the winner of Best Song. Some big names from film and television were on hand to lend Hollywood sparkle to proceedings, including Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer and Oscar-winner Jared Leto, also the frontman of the band Thirty Seconds to Mars that took home the award for Best Alternative act.
Irish rockers U2 were presented with a Global Icon award, in recognition of their decades at the top of the music industry.
The band played a concert at an MTV event in London’s Trafalgar Square the previous evening, footage of which was shown in lieu of a performance.
Other winners included Camila Cabello, who took the Best Pop, and rapper Kendrick Lamar won Best Video for Humble. Notable performances included local London grime star Stormzy, who took to the stage poking out of the sunroof of a police car, and Travis Scott, who entered standing atop what looked like a floating hawk.
Security was tight at the event, with airport-style scanners at entrances, following a series of attacks that have hit the UK this year, including a suicide bomb attack at an Arianna Grande concert in Manchester in May, which left 22 people dead.
