--- title: MTV VMAS: Everyone Wants To Sit By Taylor Swift at Awards description: Apparently celebrities can request who they sit by at award shows, and as might be expected, Taylor Swift tops the most-requested friend. canonical: https://time.com/4464814/mtv-vmas-taylor-swift/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-24T18:46:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:35:49.271Z og:title: Apparently Everyone Wants to Sit By Taylor Swift at the VMAs og:description: Here's how she makes squad goals happen og:url: https://time.com/4464814/mtv-vmas-taylor-swift/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf6c4020af0a503a/6988a381e20a872d22a92242/taylor-swift-mtv-vmas-seating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: The 58th Annual Grammy Awards og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Apparently Everyone Wants to Sit By Taylor Swift at the VMAs twitter:description: Here's how she makes squad goals happen twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf6c4020af0a503a/6988a381e20a872d22a92242/taylor-swift-mtv-vmas-seating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Apparently Everyone Wants to Sit Next to Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 24, 2016 6:46 PM UTC  Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, and Selena Gomez in the audience at The 58TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS on Monday, Feb. 15, 2016 (8:00-11:30 PM, live ET) at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and broadcast on the CBS Television Network. (Photo by Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images) Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, and Selena Gomez in the audience at The 58TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS on Monday, Feb. 15, 2016 (8:00-11:30 PM, live ET) at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles and broadcast on the CBS Television Network. (Photo by Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images) CBS Photo Archive—CBS via Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 24, 2016 6:46 PM UTC In this day and age, Taylor Swift’s [all-consuming friendship industrial complex](http://time.com/4410615/taylor-swift-kim-kardashian-kanye-west-celebrities/), otherwise known as [the squad](http://time.com/4394014/taylor-swift-4th-of-july-instagram-2016/), is nearly ubiquitous. That being said, it should come as no surprise that the pop princess is one of the top-requested seat mates at the [MTV Video Music Awards](http://time.com/4455110/britney-spears-perform-video-music-awards/), where celebs often send requests with RSVPs to be seated by their friends. In an interview with Megan Friedman for [_Cosmopolitan_](http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a63172/mtv-video-music-awards-2016-seating-chart/), MTV music and talent vice president Gina Esposito said that they often receive multiple requests from stars who want to sit by Taylor. “She has so many good friends, and it was hard to figure out the ‘Taylor’ of it all \[in past years\], because so many people were requesting to sit by her and sit with her,” Esposito said. “She’s often really requested.” It’s not just Taylor’s well-documented friendship that has artists clamoring to be seated by her, however; Esposito also disclosed that the seating charts for the awards show are dependent on making sure that the right people are in front of the cameras to capture certain reactions. Given the fact that Swift often has no shortage of awards, memorable dance moves, and buzz-worthy moments ([how much do you want to bet that the never-ending Taylor-Kanye drama is going to surface at the VMAs yet again?](http://time.com/4411055/kanye-west-taylor-swift-kim-kardashian-feud/)), if you’re looking for some screen time, sitting by Tay could be a boon. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4464814/mtv-vmas-taylor-swift/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4464814/mtv-vmas-taylor-swift/"},"headline":"Apparently Everyone Wants to Sit Next to Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards","datePublished":"2016-08-24T18:46:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:35:49.271Z","description":"Here's how she makes squad goals happen","url":"https://time.com/4464814/mtv-vmas-taylor-swift/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","vmas","VMAs 2016"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf6c4020af0a503a/6988a381e20a872d22a92242/taylor-swift-mtv-vmas-seating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf6c4020af0a503a/6988a381e20a872d22a92242/taylor-swift-mtv-vmas-seating.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The 58th Annual Grammy Awards","caption":"The 58th Annual Grammy Awards","creditText":"CBS Photo Archive—CBS via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4464814/mtv-vmas-taylor-swift/","name":"Apparently Everyone Wants to Sit Next to Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards"}}]}] ```