Taylor Swift used her speech at Wednesday night’s American Music Awards to rally against President Trump, just days after publicly sharing her first political statement.
The pop star, who until recently had avoided sharing her political opinions in public, used the stage to call on fans to vote against the Republican party.
Earlier this week, she endorsed two democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee in an Instagram post to her 112 million followers, which led to a spike in voter registrations.
During her acceptance speech for one of her four awards, Taylor said: “I just want to say to the fans, you have been so nice to me and fun and funny and so cool and so loyal, and it’s not lost on me, I understand how lucky I am.”
“This award and every single award given out tonight were voted on by the people.
“And you know what else is voted on by the people? The midterm elections on November 6. Get out and vote.”
Taylor previously said she had chosen to speak out on political issues now “due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years”, adding she believes in “the fight for LGBTQ rights” and that “any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG”.
Trump was quick to rebuke the Instagram post, saying he now likes her music ”25 per cent less”.
Taylor took home the Best Tour, Album, Female and Artist of the Year awards at last night’s ceremony, becoming the most successful female artist in the event’s history.
Her AMAs total is now at 23, overtaking the late Whitney Houston’s 21 gongs.
The singer performed ‘I Did Something Bad’ from her 2017 album ‘Reputation’ on a set adorned by a huge mechanical cobra at the ceremony, which was held at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theatre.
The AMAs also awarded Late rapper, XXXTentacion, a posthumous award after he was gunned down in June aged 20.
The award was accepted by his mother Cleopatra who while fighting back tears, she said: “I am honoured. On behalf of my son, I would like to thank the AMAs, his fans and everyone who made this possible. Thanks guys, I appreciate it.”
There was also a tribute to the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, who died in August.
