# Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift at the VMAs

> A 2009 VMA interruption became an image macro, video remix and recurring awards-show joke.

- Owner: MTV (broadcast); Kanye West and Taylor Swift (participants)
- Kind: Moment
- Sector: Entertainment
- Seed date: 2009-09-13
- Peak proxy date: 2009-09-13
- Date basis: Proxy date; not a directly measured attention peak.
- Spread Score: 62 (Viral, provisional), v1.3
- Mechanics: Remixable template, Controversy, Transgression, Platform jump, Press loop

## Summary

West interrupted Swift on live TV. Twitter reactions, YouTube remixes and Tumblr image macros followed; Obama’s off-record criticism became another story. Swift answered on SNL and in Innocent, and awards-show callbacks continued for years.

## Timeline

- 2009-09-13 — Kanye West (TV) — West took Swift's microphone during her Best Female Video acceptance and praised Beyoncé's video.
- 2009-09-13 — Twitter users (X) — Twitter users posted about West's interruption as MTV's live social monitor tracked the reaction.
- 2009-09-13 — Peak proxy: Twitter users (X) — West mentions reached almost 5,000 tweets per 30 seconds in the live VMA monitor, an initial-night proxy.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/kanye-taylor-vmas-2009

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift at the VMAs.” Case HIS-01502. Spread Score v1.3: 62/100. Updated 2026-10-23. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01502