Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj showed they have buried the hatchet after their Twitter spat by teaming up on stage at the VMAs.

Taylor has had a glittering array of guests on her 1989 tour but it was her turn to make a special appearance as Nicki opened the show at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles.

Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj together on stage at the MTV VMAs
Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj hug it out after their VMAs team-up (Matt Sayles / AP)

Nicki – dressed in an amazing red outfit complete with feather headdress – opened with her song Trini Dem Girls but was then joined by Taylor during The Night Is Still Young.

Finally the pair teamed up for a short chorus of Bad Blood before ending the performance with a hug.

Nicki kicked off the VMAs for the second year in a row following her amazing performance of Anaconda in 2014, and was joined on stage by around 15 dancers as she got the night off to a fiesty start.

Nicki Minaj sits on a throne at the start of her VMAs performance
Nicki Minaj got the VMAs under way with an eye-popping performance (Matt Sayles / AP)

Taylor was raised on to the stage halfway through number one song The Night Is Still Young and was then flanked by three topless male dancers as she marched across the stage towards Nicki.

Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj perform Bad Blood
Taylor said backstage they’d rehearsed it seven times – but Nicki’s performance was still a surprise (Matt Sayles / AP)

The pair became embroiled in a row in July after the nominations for the VMAs were announced.

Nicki tweeted about how race, gender and body-type may have played into the nominations, and Taylor initially took it as a personal attack and accused Nicki of pitting “women against each other” before later apologising.

The MTV Video Music Awards will air on MTV UK at 8pm tonight.