The stage is set for one of the biggest awards nights of the music industry as fans from around the world will be tuning in to root for their favourite acts at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA). The ceremony will broadcast live from Inglewood California on August 27, with Katy Perry hosting the event.
As we count down to the hits and misses, along with the fireworks that are likely to erupt — both on and off stage — Gulf News tabloid! looks at the five hotly anticipated moments to watch out for.
1) Gender neutrality
Rebranding its awards to make it gender neutral, like they did for the MTV Movie and TV Awards, the categories of best male video and best female video have now been eliminated. Artists will be competing for the video of the year award instead and will take home the Moon Person statue, rebranded after what was formerly known as Moonman.
2) Kendrick Lamar hits eight
California-based rapper Kendrick Lamar leads this year’s nominations in eight categories for the song Humble. The first time he won a VMA was in 2015 for his song Alright, which took home the Moonman for best direction. He has been nominated for VMAs a total of 14 times.
3) Star-studded performances
Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, Lorde, Kendrick Lamar, Miley Cyrus, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Fifth Harmony and Shawn Mendes are the biggest headliners set to perform. However, we are particularly rooting for the special collaboration between DNCE and Rod Stewart. And of course, Pink, who will receive the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
4) New awards categories
Best Fight Against the System and Artist of the Year are the two new additions to the 15 awards categories. Nominations for Best Fight Against the System include Alessia Cara, John Legend, Big Sean, Taboo, The Hamilton Mixtape and Logic. Whereas, nominations for Artist of The Year are dominated by the biggest pop stars including Ed Sheeran, Lorde, Bruno Mars and Ariana Grande, as well as rappers Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd.
5) Taylor Swift vs Katy Perry
The three-year anniversary of the Katy Perry and Taylor Swift feud is coming up. Could the VMAs be the stage for the duo to finally bury the hatchet? Well, insiders may be sitting on the fence on this one, what with the duo dropping their latest tracks on the same day — Swish Swish by Perry and Look What You Made Me Do by Swift — and taking subtle stabs at each other. Although, everyone is quite unanimous is saying the duo on stage will definitely steal the thunder from the rest of the acts.
— Viraj Asher is an intern at Gulf News.
