Camila Cabello is brings Miami Beach to the VMA stage. The C, XOXO Pop star took the stage at the 2024 Video Music Awards to perform an emotional, cathartic medley of her Magical City Songs “June Gloom” and “Godspeed”.
Cabello’s performance began with a video of the singer – with bright blonde hair – singing “June Gloom” before Cabello, in real life, this time with brown hair, stepped up to a laptop and switched off the performance to sing her new single “Godspeed” live.
More from Rolling Stone
Cabello sang from a giant clear box surrounded by dancers in ski masks as she sang into a camera beaming onto a large screen. “We’re living in a spirit world/You’re living in a past life,” Cabello sang. “If everything could stay the way it is/Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Cabello’s emotions ran high during the performance. At the end, she grabbed her laptop, threw it on the ground and destroyed it before stepping out to sing the song’s outro to the crowd. “Let you go, and I feel more like myself,” Cabello sang, before nodding at the drama of the song, which is rumored to be about her ex, Shawn Mendes. “I wish you well, but far from me.”
On the red carpet, Cabello appeared to be inspired by a funeral, as she wore a lace dress with a cross around her neck. “I’m in my ‘Godspeed’ era, and this song is very much about letting go of anything that doesn’t serve you,” Cabello said of her outfit to Billboard“Today is something like a funeral for me for everything that is negative, for everything that is not useful to me.”
“Death to things that are negative, death to people and situations that try to bring you down,” she added.
The performance of “Godspeed” takes place a few days after the release of the Magical City Version of their album C, XOXOwith four additional songs. Cabello said on social media that “Godspeed” was “the first song I ever wrote for this album, and that the four new songs on the Magical City Edition represents “the soul of this album”.
This year, Cabello was nominated for Best Pop, beating out Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae and Taylor Swift. Her video for “I Luv It,” featuring Playboi Carti, was also nominated for Best Trending Video, beating out visuals from Beyoncé, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Megan Thee Stallion and Tinashe.
Cabello last performed at the VMAs in 2021, when she took the stage with Family Single “Don’t Go Yet.” She also sang a duet of “Señorita” with Mendes at the 2019 awards, where the former couple won the Best Collaboration and Best Cinematography awards for the song. Cabello is a four-time winner of the Moon Person award. She also took home the trophies for the coveted Video of the Year award for “Havana” in 2018, as well as the Artist of the Year award.
Cabello, Anitta, Benson Boone, Halsey, Chappell Roan, Karol G, Rauw Alejandro and Sabrina Carpenter were among the artists who took the stage at this year’s VMAs. The 2024 Video Music Awards will be broadcast live on MTV from the UBS Arena in Long Island.
The best of Rolling Stone
Subscribe to the RollingStone newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
