Kacey Musgraves has officially made her debut at the MTV Video Music Awards. The singer appeared at the awards show on Sunday (Sept. 12) to deliver a haunting live performance of her “Star-Crossed,” the title track from her fifth studio album.
Musgraves, backed by acoustic guitar players to strum the song’s Latin-inspired instrumentals, started off the performance intimately surrounded by burning candles. As Musgraves’ performance went on, the stage behind her lit up with neon hearts — complete with a dagger through its center — before closing with a large burning heart of fire as the song came to a close.
Musgraves’ debut performance at the MTV Video Music Awards this year comes two days after the release of her fifth studio album, star-crossed. In a May interview with ELLE, Musgraves described the song and the corresponding album as “two people who love each other so much, but they cannot make it work in the physical realm to be together, because it’s just not written in the stars for them.” She added, “It almost takes the blame off the two people, which is what I like, because it could be easy in a heartbreak to be like, ‘Well, you f–ked up, it’s your fault.’ ‘No, you f–ked up, it’s your fault.’ And it’s like, ‘No, let’s just blame the stars. Let’s just say that we’re not meant to be.’”
The 2021 VMAs took place at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Doja Cat hosted the show as MTV celebrated its 40th anniversary.
Watch her performance below: