Ed Sheeran wins best artist at MTV Europe Music Awards

English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran won best artist and best song for "Bad Habits", while K-pop stars BTS snatched four awards at MTV's Europe Music Awards, which returned as an in-person event after a virtual 2020 edition due to the pandemic.

MTV said Sunday's EMAs, hosted in Budapest, would go ahead to show solidarity with Hungary's LGBTQ+ community following a June law banning the "display and promotion of homosexuality" among under-18s. 

It said the 2021 EMAs, held at the Papp Laszlo Budapest Sport arena, would be "a global celebration of music for all audiences around the world".

"I am so excited, I am very grateful to MTV. I think censorship of any kind of love sucks, and this is kind of a stand against that," international pop star Kim Petras, the first transgender performer at the EMAs, said on the red carpet.

Some gay couples arriving at the show were kissing on the red carpet and others were dressed in rainbow-coloured clothes in a show of support for LGBTQ+ people.