The VMAs are back this year on MTV, live from Microsoft Theater in Los Angles on August 30th. Miley Cyrus is set to host, even though she has been pretty quiet in music during these past couple years. The VMAs have 15 categories this year, with the most nominations going surprisingly to rapper Kendrick Lamar; he has been nominated 13 times with three different videos: Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood, Flying Lotus’ Never Catch Me, and then his own song entitled Alright. Like other years and other award shows, many of this year’s awards are to be tightly contested. Here are my predictions for some of the winners of this year’s awards.
Video of the Year: Bad Blood by Taylor Swift (feat. Kendrick Lamar). It has a good chance of winning based on sheer popularity, and the interesting addition of several famous women cast in a sort of super hero type video. She probably will beat out Kendrick Lamar (solo), Mark Ronson, Ed Sheeran, and Beyoncé.
Best Male Video: Mark Ronson (feat. Bruno Mars) for Uptown Funk. It has been viewed over 900 million times, and the combination of dancing and pop-infused funk music is catchy and fun to watch. I believe he may beat out Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, and Nick Jonas.
Best Female Video: Sia winning for her strange video Elastic Heart featuring Maddie Ziegler and Shia LaBeouf. The two dance together and though it's controversial because of the age difference between the two main characters, it may be seen as very artistic and symbolic. Other competitors include Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, Ellie Goulding, and Taylor Swift.
Artist to Watch: Fetty Wap winning. Trap Queen was a huge hit and propelled him to international fame and stardom. He was picked as part of the XXL Freshman Class this year, and his other singles 670 and My Way charted at 8 and 7 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100 list.
Best Pop Video: Maroon 5’s Sugar. This is because of its interesting concept that has never been done before. Though staged, the band travels to different weddings and plays for married couples, who are surprised that the band shows up and performs.
Best Rock Video: Hozier’s Take Me to Church. It was recently nominated for several Grammy’s and saw a large amount of popularity for its aspects of homosexuality between a same sex couple. This is his breakthrough song, and the music video just increased Hozier’s name in the industry.
Best Hip Hop Video: See You Again by Wiz Khalifa (Feat. Charlie Puth). It is one of the most successful songs released in a decade and is also a powerful farewell to Paul Walker. The song charted at the top of 38 charts worldwide.
The show will be here at 8 pm on Sunday. The 8.3 million that watched last you were down from the 10.1 million a year prior. Will these music videos and eccentric host Miley Cyrus bring back the audience viewership and propel MTV's ratings?
