Cardi B leads MTV Video Music Awards nominees

During those blissful reminiscing times in her future, I am sure that today’s hottest female artist Cardi B will look back on the past 12 months as the best, most exciting time of her life.

Get a load of these: The hip-hop star, a former stripper, who was born Belcalis Almanzar, was discovered for recording, released her first single last August 2017, notched an instant No. 1 seller, Bodak Yellow, joined Bruno Mars for the next, Finesse, followed up with another, I Like It featuring Bad Bunny and J. Balvin, had a No. 1 album, Invasion of Privacy and collaborated with Maroon 5 for Girls Like You. Aside from that, she also fell in love and got married to Offset of Migos and gave birth to a daughter Kulture Kiari Cephus. (Whew!!!).

After all that, she was greeted last Tuesday by the news that she topped the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) nominations with 10 calls. The noms are all gender neutral, which means she competed on equal footing with both girls and boys. The VMAs scrapped the male and female categories some years ago. Cardi’s noms are mostly for Finesse, her collaboration with Bruno Mars.

And now the complete list of MTV VMA nominees:

• Video of the Year: Ariana Grande, No Tears Left To Cry; Bruno Mars feat. Cardi B, Finesse; Camila Cabello feat. Young Thug, Havana; The Carters, APES**T; Childish Gambino, This Is America; Drake, God’s Plan.

(Left) Ariana Grande and Bruno Mars.

• Artist of the Year: Ariana Grande; Bruno Mars; Camila Cabello; Cardi B; Drake; Post Malone.

• Song of the Year: Bruno Mars feat. Cardi B, Finesse; Camila Cabello feat. Young Thug, Havana; Drake, God’s Plan; Dua Lipa, New Rules; Ed Sheeran, Perfect; Post Malone feat. 21 Savage, rockstar.

• Best New Artist: Bazzi; Cardi B; Chloe x Halle; Hayley Kiyoko; Lil Pump; Lil Uzi Vert.

• Best Collaboration: Bebe Rexha feat. Florida Georgia Line, Meant To Be; Bruno Mars feat. Cardi B, Finesse; The Carters, APES**T; Jennifer Lopez feat. DJ Khaled and Cardi B, Dinero; Logic feat. Alessia Cara and Khalid, 1-800-273-8255; N.E.R.D. and Rihanna, Lemon.

• Push Artist of the Year: July, 2018 Chloe x Halle; June, Sigrid; May, Lil Xan; April, Hayley Kiyoko; March, Jessie Reyez; February, Tee Grizzley; January, Bishop Briggs; December 2017, Grace VanderWaal; November, Why Don’t We; October, PRETTYMUCH; September, SZA; August, Kacy Hill; July, Khalid; June, Kyle; May, Noah Cyrus.

• Pop: Ariana Grande, No Tears Left To Cry; Camila Cabello feat. Young Thug, Havana; Demi Lovato, Sorry Not Sorry; Ed Sheeran, Perfect; Pink, What About Us; Shawn Mendes, In My Blood.

Drake

• Best Hip-Hop: Cardi B feat. 21 Savage, Bartier Cardi; The Carters, APES**T; Drake, God’s Plan; J. Cole, ATM; Migos feat. Drake, Walk It Talk It; Nicki Minaj, Chun-Li.

• Best Latin: Daddy Yankee, Dura; Jennifer Lopez feat. DJ Khaled and Cardi B, Dinero; Luis Fonsi, Demi Lovato, Echame La Culpa; Maluma, Felices los 4; Shakira feat. Maluma, Chantaje.

• Best Dance: Avicii feat. Rita Ora, Lonely Together; Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa, One Kiss; The Chainsmokers, Everybody Hates Me; David Guetta and Sia, Flames; Marshmello feat. Khalid, Silence; Zedd and Liam Payne, Get Low.

• Best Rock: Fall Out Boy, Champion; Foo Fighters, The Sky Is A Neighborhood; Imagine Dragons, Whatever It Takes; Linkin Park, One More Light; Panic! At The Disco, Say Amen; Thirty Seconds To Mars, Walk On Water.

• Video with a Message: Childish Gambino, This Is America; Dej Loaf and Leon Bridges, Liberated; Drake, God’s Plan; Janelle Monae, PYNK; Jessie Reyez, Gatekeeper; Logic feat. Alessia Cara and Khalid, 1-800-273-8255.

• Best Cinematography: Pau Castejon, Growing Pains; Scott Cunningham, No Tears Left To Cry; Benoit Debie, APES**T; Larkin Seiple, This Is America; Frank Mobilio and Patrick Meller, River; Jonathan Sela, In My Blood.

• Best Direction: Ricky Saix, APES**T; Hiro Murai, This Is America; Karena Evans, God’s Plan; Jason Kolnig, Perfect; Justin Timberlake feat. Arturo Perez Jr., Say Something; Jay Martin, In My Blood.

Post Malone

• Best Art Direction: Jan Houlevigue, APES**T; Jason Kisvarday, This Is America; Miles Mullin, ATM; Pepper Nguyen, Make Me Feel; SZA and Solange, The Weekend; Brett Hess, Look What You Made Me Do.

• Best Visual Effects: Vidal and Loris Paillier, No Tears Left To Cry; KPP, Lonely Together; Rich Lee, Walk On Water; Loris Paillier, All The Stars; TIMBER, Wait’ Ingenuity Studios, Look What You Made Me Do.

• Best Choreography: Phil Tayag and Bruno Mars, Finesse; Calvit Hodge and Sara Bivens, Havana; Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Racquel Knight, APES**T; Sherrie Silver, This Is America; Marion Motin, IDGAF; Marty Kudelka, Filthy.

• Best Editing: Jacquelyn London, Finesse; Taylor Ward and Sam Ostrove, APES**T; Ernie Gilbert, This Is America; Dejo Laray, Make Me Feel; Taylor Ward, Lemon; Chancler Haynes, Look What You Made Me Do.

The MTV Video Music Awards 2018 night will be aired live from Radio City Music Hall on Monday Aug. 30.