NEW YORK, Sept 12 — Taylor Swift and Post Malone landed the best collaboration trophy for their pop song Fortnight to kick off MTV’s annual Video Music Awards on Wednesday.

Swift, on a break from her record-setting Eras Tour, went into the red-carpet ceremony with the biggest stack of nominations among all artists, with 12.

Winning the first award of the night, she praised Malone as "ridiculously talented” and "unfailingly polite.”

"It has taken me forever to get him to stop calling me ma’am,” she said next to Malone on stage at the UBS Arena outside New York City.

Malone returned the compliments, calling megastar Swift "absolutely one of the most kind and talented people I’ve ever had the honor of knowing.”

The black-and-white Fortnight video was released in April to accompany the first single from Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department.

The video shows Swift in a bleak hospital, a setting she said reflected what she was seeing in her head as she wrote the Tortured Poets songs.

Malone said he watched Swift direct the video while she was strapped to an operating room table on the set. "It was pretty bad ass,” he said.

Fortnight was competing for the evening’s top honour — video of the year — against Billie Eilish’s Lunch, Eminem’s Houdini, SZA’s Snooze and others.

Eminem opened the show with Houdini before country singer Jelly Roll joined him for their hit collaboration Somebody Save Me.

Katy Perry was set to be honoured with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award for her lifetime work. — Reuters