The 2024 MTV Video Music Awards were a big night for Katy Perry, who played a career-spanning seven-song set and accepted the Video Vanguard Award. If that weren’t enough, the award was presented to Perry by her fiancé, actor Orlando Bloom. A clip of their time on stage is going viral, as it shows Perry sliding playfully onto the stage still in costume, then distracting Bloom with a prolonged kiss.
The Video Vanguard Award – also known as the “Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award” or the “Lifetime Achievement Award” – is given to one artist or music video director per year for their overall contributions to and impact on the industry. It comes in the midst of a career transition for Perry, who is releasing her first new album in four years next week. During her acceptance speech, Perry thanked everyone who had helped her along the way – including Bloom.
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“There are so many things that have to align to have a long and successful career as an artist,” Perry said. “There are no decade-long accidents. My team, who have been with me for over 20 years, direct management and my label, Capitol Records, trust me. It takes a village of strong people, a lot of healthy discourse and a lot of group chats.” She also thanked “MySpace, Warped Tour and all the bygone places where I found a voice identity and a community so early on” before moving on to more personal tributes.
Perry thanked her parents, but noted that she doesn’t always “agree” with them, then said: “Thank you to the friends that were there when my Jetta was repossessed, my KatyCats who stood by me for a lifetime and the LGBTQ community who I recognize I would not be here without.” As for Bloom, she thanked him for keeping her “grounded,” and for “doing the dishes,” which many die-hard fans took as a reference to her interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast earlier this month.
There, Perry shared some “red flags” she would look out for in a relationship, especially the ones she might have missed when she was younger. She said that she would be disinterested in “someone that just won’t help,” explaining: “It’s like, if I come downstairs and the kitchen is clean, and you’ve done it all, and you’ve done all the dishes, and you’ve closed all the pantry doors, you better be ready to get your d- sucked. I mean, like literally. That is my love language. I don’t need a red Ferrari. I can buy a red Ferrari. Just do the f-ing dishes.”
Perry and Bloom got together in early 2016, and have been engaged since February of 2019. Their daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom, was born in August of 2020. Commenters celebrated the couple under videos and posts about this award presentation, seeing this partnership as a big part of Perry’s evolution. Perry’s new album 143 debuts on Friday, Sept. 20.
