Lil Nas X wins video of the year at the 2021 MTV VMAs: ‘Thank you to the gay agenda!’

Lil Nas X has won video of the year at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.

Grabbing top prize for his controversial music video “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)� — which sees the MC descend into the underworld via stripper pole and give a lapdance to the devil — Lil Nas X won the top honor of the night. He beat out Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,� as well as Doja Cat and SZA’s “Kiss Me More,� among others.

“I want to say thank you to the gay agenda!� said Lil Nas X, who accepted his Moon Person statue from former Van Halen frontman and rock provocateur David Lee Roth.

“Montero,� which also won the VMAs for best direction and best visual effects, was created by Ukrainian music video director Tanu Muino and Lil Nas X himself. The artist cited inspiration from the gay romance at the center of André Aciman’s novel turned 2017 film, “Call Me by Your Name.�

Despite echoes of satanic panic from religious and conservative commentators, the song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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Earlier in the night, Lil Nas X performed “Industry Baby� with fellow rapper Jack Harlow, as well as some of “Montero.� Flanked by a marching band and shirtless dancers in balaclavas, Lil Nas X gyrated front and center in a set built to look like a hot pink prison.

In a bid to challenge stigma against people living with HIV and AIDS, Nas X also invited Madrequs Harris, the director of community investments at the Southern AIDS Coalition, to join him onstage. Harris wore a prison uniform with the number “433,816� emblazoned on the back in red. According to GLAAD, it represents the number of people currently living with HIV in the South.

Lil Nas X’s full-length debut, “Montero,� is due out on Friday.