Harry Styles' golden presence was missed at the 2022 MTV VMAs.
The "As It Was" singer, 28, was noticeably absent from the live award show on Aug. 28 due to a Love On Tour show at Madison Square Garden in New York City on the same night as the VMAs.
Harry—alongside Doja Cat and Jack Harlow—led the nominations for the VMAs with eight nods, including Song of the Summer, Video of the Year, Artist of the Year and Best Pop. Though he did not attend the awards, he did record a video message accepting the silver-plated Moon Person for Album of the Year for his 2022 project, Harry's House.
"Hi, VMAs," he began in his speech. "I hope you're having a nice time. I'm Harry, thank you all so much for this award for Album of the Year. I know this is a fan-voted award. I would like to say thank you to all of my fans who voted. Thank you so, so much. I obviously would be holding it if it wasn't for you."
Harry added, "I'd like to thank Tom and Tyler, who I made the album with, and everyone that worked on the album with me. I'm sorry can't be with you tonight—about to go on stage just down the road. Have a wonderful evening and thank you so much."
While Harry's Love On Tour is scheduled to go until early next year, the "Late Night Talking" singer is gearing up for the Sept. 23 release of his upcoming psychological thrill Don't Worry Darling, which is directed by his girlfriend, Olivia Wilde.
After the fall releases of Don't Worry Darling and Harry's other upcoming film, My Policeman, don't expect to see the former One Direction singer on the big screen any time soon, as he announced that he is taking a break from acting.
"I don't imagine I'd do a movie for a while," he recently told Rolling Stone, also dismissing rumors of his involvement in an upcoming Star Wars film, adding, "That's the first I've heard of that. I'd imagine… false."
Harry noted that he would rather focus on making music than acting, which he says requires a lot of dormancy.
"When you're making music, something's happening," he continued. "It feels really creative, and it feeds stuff. A large part of acting is the doing nothing, waiting thing. Which if that's the worst part, then it's a pretty good job. But I don't find that section of it to be that fulfilling. I like doing it in the moment, but I don't think I'll do it a lot."