Kanye West says he crashed Taylor Swift’s awards speech because God told him to

Infamous on-stage incident sparked a chain reaction of squabbles and accusations between West, Swift and Kim Kardashian

Kanye West has said he only crashed Taylor Swift’s MTV Video Music Awards speech in 2009 because God told him to.

West famously ran onto the stage at the 2009 ceremony to protest Swift’s Best Female Video win, arguing that the trophy should have gone to Beyoncé’s video for “Single Ladies”.

The incident gave way to a chain reaction of events involving Swift, West and his wife Kim Kardashian West, who were subsequently involved in a number of high-profile squabbles.

Speaking to Nick Cannon on his YouTube interview series Cannon’s Class, West recalled what motivated the 2009 incident.

“Right now, God is giving me the information and he ain’t gave me no other information other than this information, so that means he wants me to say this now,” West explained. “If God ain’t want me to run on stage and say Beyoncé had the best video, he wouldn’t have sat me in the front row.

He continued: “I would’ve been sitting in the back, they wouldn’t have made it the first award and they wouldn’t have made it so ridiculous of an idea, because I had never heard of this person before then. And ‘Single Ladies’ is one of the greatest videos of all time.”

West also confirmed that he was drunk during the show, adding: “I was only drinking Hennessy because I didn’t want to go to the awards show because it was a set-up.”

West’s recollection of the ceremony came during a discussion of “the black genocide of abortion”, in which he expressed conspiracy theories about abortion in the United States.

Kanye West infamously crashes Taylor Swift’s MTV VMAs speech in 2009 (Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

West’s appearance on Cannon’s YouTube channel marks his first on-camera interview since he announced his intention to run for president. He has also expressed his eagerness to defund the US women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood, which he has condemned repeatedly in recent months.

In July, Kardashian West wrote in a statement that her husband’s recent outbursts on social media and in his public appearances are linked to his mental health.

“As many of you know, Kanye has bipolar disorder,” Kardashian West wrote. “Anyone who has this or has a loved one in their life who does, knows how incredibly complicated and painful it is to understand.”

She added that West is a “brilliant but complicated person” and said “his words sometimes do not align with his intentions”.