Here’s the tea, MTV is still doing these awards and it might as well be a popularity contest at this point but the nominations rolled out today and the competition looks feisty!
The future is female and so are most of the top categories led by female artists. Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande are head to head with 10 nominations each, with Billie Eilish and her 9 nods right behind them.
Did Taylor really deserve these many nods this year compared to when she received barely any last year with better content? I mean, I guess it’s certainly a step up from her not even attending the awards back in 2017. Mending relations, I guess.
Pop Reigns Supreme At MTV VMA
Pop is reigning supreme under the video of the year category with iconic nominations such as Taylor’s “You Need to Calm Down” ,which was the ultimate clap-back video to LGBT protesters that dropped right in the middle of pride month. Another fan favourite to get nominated is “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish – even though this one was practically entirely plagiarized, but apparently MTV doesn’t care. They could’ve squeezed in Halsey’s “Nightmare” instead, I guess not. “Thank u, next” was predictably going to make the list anyway, as it should, because we religiously stan. “Sucker” was also nominated, making it the Jonas Brothers’ second nod within the category after 11 years. “Old Town’s” on here too whilst something that you’d find me secretly rooting for would be 21 Savage’s, “a lot”.
Ariana Grande Rules Over Best Artist Category For 4 Years Straight
As far as best artists go, Ariana Grande has been nominated in the category back to back since the past 3 years and is back this year. Why on earth did the Jonas brothers make it to this list and BTS had to be kept separate I can’t comprehend. If Cardi B ends up winning, then I guess the VMA’s are actually a joke. Even Halsey is a contender and deserves it so much, can’t help but be super proud of her for this nomination. The only two male nominees in the category are the Jonas Brothers and Shawn Mendes although surprising to see “Senorita” not in any of the nominations.
Song Of The Year – Lady Gaga vs Drake
Song of the year’s nominees is as one would’ve expected. Drake’s “In my feelings”nomination followed suit as it became an internet sensation over the last year. Four video of the year nominees also make it to this category. Although, let’s be honest, “Shallow” by Lady Gaga deserves to win by a long shot. Ecstatic to see Lady Gaga up here nominated after almost 8 years! Billie Eilish could definitely win the best new artist, given her new success within the field. Also Hello? Lizzo got nominated! She and Lil Nas X seem to be the other two top contenders for the category.
K-Pop Gets Its Very Own Category?!
A new K-pop category? I’m sorry but did you just aim to slide k-pop artists into a single award category, the very same artists that have outsold all the western nominees, broken several music records, had the best touring acts and the best-selling album by a band in 2019, (namely BTS ) and yet it got snubbed of all other major categories only to find itself in mediocre ones like the “former and Best collaboration”. And the absence of bands like Red Velvet or Twice makes it all the more worse.
Nipsey Deserves A Nod
Furthermore, half the songs under Best Rock are not exactly rock, even “High Hopes” by Panic! at the Disco would fall under pop. DJ Khaled might as well have had his best track “Higher” contending for Best Hip Hop. It would be really nice to see a nod in respect to Nipsey, who died as the result of a shooting in March. But “a lot” and “Old Town” stand a really good chance on their own.
Notable Artists Snubbed
Most of the categories check out with nothing super undeserving per se, although artists like Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus completely snubbed from the nominations whilst Bad Bunny received only one for “Mia”. Kacey Musgraves had stolen the Grammy’s with her Album of the year win, but leave it to MTV to not include her as a nominee at all, like ever.
MTV VMA airs August 26. Voting is open now. Last year, the VMAs had the lowest viewer rating in history, probably will be different this year since Taylor swift is expected to perform. We’ll see…
