"This year for me has been a lot."

Taylor Swift stuck it to The Man at last night's American Music Awards as she accepted her award for Artist of the Year, surpassing Michael Jackson for the most AMAs ever won by one act. The country singer turned pop sensation picked up a staggering six awards during last night's ceremony as she reflected on the "hardest" year of her career. Before this, she performed a medley of her greatest hits, but not without throwing a few subtle yet entirely blatant digs at Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, the music execs who own the back catalogue of her older music. Donning a white shirt with the names of some of her past records including Fearless, Speak Now, and 1989, Swift shed the garment on stage to reveal a glittering gold leotard. She then performed a section of her new track, 'The Man,' a song about how more successful and lesser criticised she would have been if she had been born a man. This came after Swift had issued a statement saying she had been “planning to perform a medley of my hits throughout the decade on the show." "Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun have now said that I’m not allowed to perform my old songs on television because they claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year.” Swift's former label, Big Machine, later released a statement saying that the singer would be permitted to perform her songs. Afterwards in her acceptance speech for Artist of the Year, Swift thanked her fans for sticking by her in what she described as the "hardest" year of her life. "I really don’t have anything articulate to say," she said. "Just the fact that the last year of my life has had some of the most amazing times, and also some of just the hardest things I’ve gone through in my life and not a lot of them are things that haven’t been public." "I don’t know what I’m talking about other than the fact that this was just like this year for me has been a lot (...) It’s been a lot of good, it’s been a lot of really complicated, and so on behalf of my family and me. Thank you so much for being there and for caring."

Swift was then joined by Camila Cabello and Halsey for 'Shake It Off,' before launching into one of her newer songs, 'Lover.'

“All any of the artists in this room want is to create something that will last,” she said. “And all that matters to me is the memories that I have had with you, the fans, over the years, because we’ve had fun, incredible exhilarating times together. Thank you for being the reason I am on this stage.”