The Highlights From The VMAS Nomination Day
Every year, MTV’s Video Music Awards, or the VMAs, celebrate the absolute best in music videos. Since 1984, the award show honors the most talented and entertaining musicians, directors, and choreographers for their work. The awards are across a variety of genres, as well as different aspects and parts that go into a music video. The award show leads up to the top prize, the Video of the Year award. Other top awards include Song of the Year and Artist of the Year. On August 8, MTV revealed the nominations. There has been a lot to say about these, before the award show airs on September 12.
Top Nominees at the VMAS
Many people came out of nomination day collecting a lot of VMA nominations. Unsurprisingly, the singer with the most nominations was Taylor Swift. The hitmaker, who has garnered a lot of attention for her Eras Tour, got eight nominations for this year’s VMAs, most of these for the music video of her song “Anti-Hero”. These nominations include Video of the Year, Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, and more. After Swift, SZA had the second most nominations, including Video of the Year and Song of the Year for her song “Kill Bill”. Other top nominees include Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, Kim Petras, and Sam Smith, who each have five. These are all celebrated artists receiving much-deserved recognition.
Newcomers at the VMAS
While there are many established artists on the VMA nomination list, there are also plenty of newcomers. Naturally, many of those nominees come from the Best New Artist category. Notable nominees from that category include Renee Rapp, Ice Spice, and Pink Pantheress. Multi-nominees like Kim Petras, as well as Metro Boomin, Rema and more, also got to celebrate their first nomination. There is also a new category, the Afrobeats category, to celebrate even more artists. Overall, this award show celebrates all musicians, from the old-timers to the up-and-coming.
The Year of the Woman
This year, there is a higher amount of women nominated in some prominent VMA categories. In the Best Video category, out of the seven nominees, six are entirely female acts. Those acts include Taylor Swift, Doja Cat, and Olivia Rodrigo. The seventh nominated act has Sam Smith, who identifies as non-binary, as well as Kim Petras for “Unholy.” This means that there are no male-identifying acts in Best Video of the Year. Last year, four of the seven nominees were male, which shows quite a change for women. In addition, all six of the nominees for Artist of the Year are women, like Beyonce, Shakira, Doja Cat and more. Last year, all but one of the nominees, Lizzo, were men. This year’s VMAs are certainly celebrating the accomplishments of women this year.
History of the VMAS
The VMAs were originally created as a younger alternative to the Grammys, as well as showing massive appreciation for the art of music videos. Over time, this award has become a big dream in the music industry, and while MTV has lost some of its popularity, this award show soldiers on. The main award has gone to songs like “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits, “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor, “The Real Slim Shady” by Eminem, “Hey Ya!” by Outkast, “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, and more. Last year’s award went to “All Too Well: The Short Film” by Taylor Swift. The award show is also home to some infamous moments like Kanye West taking the microphone from Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus twerking on Robin Thicke. The VMAs have an exciting history, and it looks like that excitement will continue.
How are Winners Decided?
What makes the VMAs so exciting is that the selection of winners is in the hands of the fans. Voters can go onto the VMA website to decide who they want to win within each of the categories. They even have room to vote extra a couple of times. In addition, after some waiting, they can vote multiple times. This voting is up until September 1 for most categories, except for Best New Artist, which is up until awards night. This voting determines who people really think is the best. Like in many previous years, MTV will televise the awards from the Prudential Center in New Jersey. It will surely be a memorable night with some memorable stars.
Featured Photo by MTV.com