At the end of each summer, MTV celebrates the best music videos of the year hosting the Video Music Awards, or the VMAs for short. Iconic video such as “Single Ladies” by Beyoncé, “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, "Hey Ya!" by OutKast, and “Waterfalls” by TLC have all been recognized by MTV for being the best video of their respected years. This year, a whole new batch of nominations has been announced and even though it looks like every category is solid, there are still a couple snubs, surprises and reliefs that haunt this year awards.
The Surprises
Sia (Video of the Year)- A pleasant surprise, but still a surprise indeed. Sia has had her biggest year yet with “Chandelier”, but it still didn’t seem like it was big enough to score a coveted VMA nod, especially for the top prize. However, it’s a well-deserved one.
Childish Gambino (Best Rap Video) - The camera motion in “3005” was stellar. Happy to see it nominated.
Avicii (Best Pop Video)- It’s not surprising that “Wake Me Up” received a nomination. It’s surprising that it is nominated for Best Pop Video instead of for the MTV Clubland Award.
Kelly Rowland (Best Video With A Social Message) The video told a story. An honest and personal story and 100% deserves a nod in this category, but it’s still a surprise that MTV feels the same way.
The Snubs
Lady Gaga- “Applause” was a big song and the video amassed almost 200 million views. Also, MTV always supported Lady Gaga and even awarded her 13 VMAs.
Paramore- Although lead singer Haley Williams received a nod for featuring on Zedd’s “Stay The Night”, Paramore should have received multiple nominations for both “Still Into You” and “Ain’t it Fun”. Both songs became the biggest hits of their career and the video for “Ain’t It Fun” was fresh and original.
Jhene Aiko- she had a big year and she just seem like the type of artist that MTV would acknowledge.
Overall, the nominations are great. Queen Beyoncé leads with eight nominations for “Pretty Hurts”, “Partition” and “Drunk in Love” featuring Jay Z, including Video of the Year. She deserves to lead the nominations since she put out entire visual album. Newcomer Iggy Azalea has a had a fantastic year and MTV predicted it last year by nominating her in the Artist to Watch category for “Work.” All the hype aside, “Fancy” was a great video all-around and deserve its nominations. The first round of performers for the August 24th show is Ariana Grande, Usher and 5 Seconds of Summer.
Here are a full list of nominees.