Last year’s MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) will always be remembered as the night when Kanye West came at Taylor Swift in a strange bid to come to Beyoncé’s rescue. Taylor won and Beyoncé lost. I do not know if anybody found out what was going on in Kanye’s mind at the time, but he did seem like a jackass stepping on a kitten.
OK, I take that back, a jackass can be cute and funny, wasn’t there a Jackass show in MTV? And Kanye certainly wasn’t that night. He was the most hated man in the world the morning after. Anyway, the incident made good publicity for the VMA and I am sure that there will be more people watching the show this year. They will not want to miss anything, just in case somebody does a Kanye.
Kanye or no Kanye wanna-be on Sept. 12 though, you can bet that there will be lots of watchable stuff for viewers to enjoy. This is because Lady Gaga copped a historic 13 nominations. Now, you all know Lady Gaga and since she is up for a record-breaking 13 Moonman trophies, she will surely come up with something unique or shocking or at the very least mesmerizing for the audience.
The Gaga’s monster-selling Bad Romance is up for all the major categories plus others. These are Video of the Year; Best Pop Video; Best Female Video; Best Dance Music Video; Best Art Direction; Best Cinematography; Best Direction; Best Choreography; Best Editing and Best Special Effects. Video Phone by Beyoncé featuring Lady Gaga also got nods for Best Collaboration and Best Choreography and then again for Video Of the Year and Best Choreography for Telephone featuring Beyoncé.
Then there is also Justin Bieber. The kid’s hit tune Baby featuring Ludacris, is in the running for the Best New Artist award against Ke$ha for Tik Tok; Jason Derulo for In My Head; Nicki Minaj featuring Sean Garrett for Massive Attack; and Broken Bells for The Ghost Inside.
This is a very popular and talented batch but not to forget, the public votes for the VMA winners and the teen-aged Justin is the biggest star of them all. Ergo, he is with loads of fans. I am sure the VMA will get him to perform for the event and all the tweenies in many parts of the world will sit up late just to watch him toss his bangs and go …baby, baby… They will rejoice if he wins and hate the VMA forever if he loses.
Voting for the general categories started last Wednesday. All that fans have to do now is go to vma.mtv.com for instructions on how to send in their votes.
Here are the rest of the nominees: Video of the Year: Florence +The Machine, Dog Days Are Over; Kings and Queens, 30 Seconds To Mars; Eminem, Not Afraid; B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams, Airplanes.
Best Female Video: Ke$ha, Tik Tok; Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg, California Gurls; and Fifteen by Taylor Swift.
Best Male Video: Eminem, Not Afraid; Usher featuring Will.i.am, OMG; B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams, Airplanes; Drake, Find Your Love; and Jason Derulo, In My Head.
Best Collaboration: B.o.B featuring Haley Willims, Airplanes; 30H! featuring Ke$ha, My First Kiss. Jay-Z & Alicia Keys, Empire State of Mind.
Best Hip-Hop Video: B.o.B featuring Haley Williams, Airplanes; Eminem, Not Afraid; Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem, Forever; Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz, On To The Next One; Kid Cudi featuring MGMT & Ratatatat; Pursuit Of Happiness.
Best Pop Video: Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg, California Gurls; Ke$ha, Tik Tok; B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars, Nothing On You.
Best Rock Video: 30 Seconds to Mars, Kings And Queens; Muse, Uprising; Paramore, Ignorance; Florence + the Machine, Dog Days Are Over; MGMT, Flash Delirium.
Best Dance Music Video: Enrique Iglesias featuring Pitbull, I Like It; Cascada, Evacuate The Dance Floor; David Guetta featuring Akon, Sexy Cheek; Usher featuring will.i.am. OMG.
Best Art Direction: Florence + the Machine, Dog Days Are Over; Eminem, Not Afraid; 30 Seconds to Mars, Kings And Queens.
Best Choreography: Usher featuring will.i.am, OMG; Janelle Monae featuring Big Boi, Tightrope.
Best Cinematography: Eminem, Not Afraid; Jay-Z & Alicia Keys, Empire State Of Mind; Mumford and Sons, Little Lion Man; Florence + The Machine, Dog Days Are Over.
Best Direction: Jay-Z & Alicia Keys, Empire State Of Mind; Eminem, Not Afraid; Pink, Funhouse; 30 Seconds to Mars, Kings & Queens.
Best Editing: Eminem, Not Afraid; Rihanna, Rude Boy; Pink, Funhouse; Mike Snow, Animal.
Best Special Effects: Eminem, Not Afraid; Muse, Uprising; Green Day, The 21st Century Breakdown; Dan Black, Symphonies.
Breakthrough Video: Dan Black, Symphonies; Gorillaz featuring Bobby Womack & Mos Def, Stylo; Coldplay, Strawberry Swing; The Black Keys, Tighten Up.