Dove Cameron Dedicated Her Best New Artist VMA to Queer Youth

Dove Cameron has a Moon Man.

The queer former Disney star won the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist at last night’s ceremony, adding a cherry on top of what has been a great year for the singer and actor.

Cameron thanked her fans and said that she was honored to be on stage with some of her all-time favorite artists.

“I want to dedicate this to all the queer kids out there who don’t feel that they can take up space and inhabit the fullness of who they are,” Cameron said in her speech. “Thank you for getting an overtly queer song onto mainstream radio.”

“Thank you for supporting me as the persona and the artist that I am, I hope in that way you’ve also given that privilege to yourself,” she continued. “I love you so much.”

Cameron’s song “Boyfriend” is her biggest hit so far, originating on TikTok. The song peaked at number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number two on the US Mainstream Top 40, something that rarely happens with overtly queer songs.

“Every song I've ever released is obviously from a queer perspective because I'm queer,” Cameron told Out back when the video for “Boyfriend” was first released. “But this is the first one that has been blatantly and loudly queer. And I think that accident of me writing this song and having it grassroots blow up on the internet and then the label scrambling to put it out has just been really informative for me.”

“It's like, 'okay, I can occupy this space,'”  she continued. “And it's safe, and I'm allowed to be the fullness of who I am, and I can survive it. And not only that, but I can create from there, and it can go well.”

Cameron beat out rappers Baby Keem and Latto, as well as K-Pop group SEVENTEEN, Italian Eurovision winners M?neskin, and “ABCDEFU” singer GAYLE.

Since 2018, every VMA winner for Best New Artist has been a woman. Before Dove Cameron, Olivia Rodrigo won the award in 2021, Doja Cat won in 2020, Billie Eilish in 2019, and Cardi B in 2018. Khalid was the last male singer to win, back in 2017.

Cameron’s newest single, “Breakfast,” is a feminist anthem with a video showing a world where gender roles are reversed and showing the horrors of the overturn of Roe v. Wade. She is encouraging fans to get involved with organizations that support people’s right to choose and elect pro-choice politicians.

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