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Unsurprisingly in a year in which she has dominated all other comers in recorded music and the live sphere, Taylor Swift emerged as the leading nominee for MTV’s Video Music Awards, collecting 10 nominations in the competition for the 2024 spacemen.
Post Malone followed close behind with nine nods, primarily for sharing Swift’s “Fortnight” nominations, as her featured guest on that hit.
Sabrina Carpenter, Eminem and Ariana Grande tied for third place among VMAs finalists, with six nominations each. SZA and Megan Thee Stallion both picked up five nominations.
Moving ahead in the contest with four nods each are Olivia Rodrigo, Teddy Swims and, making big inroads as a solo artist, Blackpink’s Lisa. Tied with three nominations apiece are Benson Boone, Anitta, Dua Lipa, Tyla, Bleachers and GloRilla.
The VMAs will air live from UBS Arena on Sept. 10 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. It’s the first time for the awards show to be based in that New York venue, after being settled in at New Jersey’s Prudential Center for the last two years. A host has not yet been announced.
Fan voting in 15 categories, including video of the year, is open now through Aug. 30 at vote.mtv.com. But one category, best new artist, will leave voting open all the way through showtime on Sept. 10.
Swift has won the top prize, the video of the year award, for the last two years running, and picked it up four times overall. If she wins again this year, for the “Fortnight” video, she will be the first artist to have a “three-peat” as well as the first to be a five-time winner in the category in VMAs history. She won a year ago for “Anti-Hero” and in 2022 for “All Too Well: The Short Film”; prior to those successive wins, Swift picked up the prize for “You Need to Calm Down” in 2019 and “Bad Blood” in 2015.
If anyone is wondering if the possibility exists for Swift to personally pick up any trophies that come her way, the answer is yes, since she will be taking a nearly three-month break from the Eras Tour beginning in late August. If Swift hasn’t announced a release date for “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” by then, there may be a big tune-in among Swifties hopeful that she will use a VMAs speech to do it; there is some history there, as the singer announced her “Midnights” album at the 2022 ceremony.
The nominees for video of the year are Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love),” Eilish’s “Lunch,” Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red,” Eminem’s “Houdini,” SZA’s “Snooze” and the Swift/Malone collab “Fortnight.”
In the artist of the year category, Swift is joined by her tourmate, Carpenter, as well as Grande, Bad Bunny, Eminem and SZA. It’s a notable achievement for Carpenter that she is being nominated for artist of the year in the first year she has received any VMAs nominations at all.
Swift is the only artist to be nominated in the best direction category for directing her own video. Her other nominations came for artist of the year and — all for “Fortnight” — song of the year, best collaboration, best pop, best cinematography, best editing, best visual effects and best art direction.
With no album out of his own yet, Malone got his nine nominations by sharing most of Swift’s nods, as the featured artist on “Fortnight.” Malone did pick up one nomination for a non-Swift song, as he is represented in the best collaboration category twice, getting a second nod there for “I Had Some Help,” the lead single off his forthcoming country album, on which he was joined by Morgan Wallen.
The currently hot Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and Charli XCX have two nominations each, joined as double-nominees by Drake, Jelly Roll, Bad Bunny, Coldplay, Latto, Jung Kook, Usher, Victoria Monet, Tate McRae, Sexyy Red, Rauw Alejandro and Jessie Murph.
Beyoncé, whose “Cowboy Carter” has been one of the year’s most talked about albums, has one nomination, for “Texas Hold ‘Em” as song of the year. Shaboozey, whose “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four nonconsecutive weeks so far, also has a single nod. In both cases, the artists released what were billed as “visualizers,” rather than the full produced music videos the VMAs typically honor.
The nominees for best new artist are Shaboozey, Boone, Roan, Swims, Tyla and Gracie Abrams.
Other artists who picked up their first VMAs nominations ever, besides Carpenter, include Wallen, Alexander Stewart, Burna Boy, Coco Jones, Flyana Boss, Gunna, Joyner Lucas, Laufey, Le Sserafim, Lojay, Myke Towers, NCT Dream, Pheelz, Playboi Carti, Raye, Tyler Childers and the Warning. Many of those first-timers picked up their nominations through the category of MTV Push Performance of the Year, honoring everyone who was picked on a monthly basis for MTV’s freshman artist initiative, or in the social-consciousness-honoring Video for Good division.
Tuesday’s rollout includes all of the nominations except social categories, which MTV says will be revealed at a later date.
The telecast’s executive producers are Bruce Gillmer and Den of Thieves co-founder Jesse Ignjatovic, with Barb Bialkowski as co-executive producer. Alicia Portugal and Jackie Barba are the executives in charge of production; Wendy Plaut is executive in charge of celebrity talent; and Lisa Lauricella is the show’s music talent executive.
