The pop diva was in the running for 11
awards at MTV’s annual extravaganza, which will take place August 28 in
New York’s Madison Square Garden, a shift from the more common venue in
Los Angeles.
Adele came in second with eight
nominations. All but seven were for the chart-topping English
balladeer’s “Hello,” which with more than 1.6 billion views is the fifth
most watched video ever on YouTube.
“Hello,” filmed by the Canadian director
Xavier Dolan, shows Adele on the phone with a younger version of
herself and was the first music video created for the high-resolution
IMAX format.
“Hello” was in the running for Video of
the Year against Beyonce’s “Formation,” the most overtly political work
of the former Destiny’s Child singer’s career as she aligned herself
with the Black Lives Matter protest movement.
Filmed by Melina Matsoukas, “Formation”
at one point shows a row of police officers with their hands in the air
and graffiti on a wall that reads, “Stop shooting us.”
The video riled some conservative
commentators and law enforcement groups who voiced anger when Beyonce
performed the song at the Super Bowl, the most watched television event
of the year.
Shot in New Orleans, “Formation” marked a shift in sound by Beyonce to the southern city’s bounce hip-hop scene.
“Formation” was her first single off her
album “Lemonade,” which she released in April to accompany a film that
she made for HBO.
The album and film are full of
references to infidelity as well as forgiveness, drawing speculation
that Beyonce’s husband, rap mogul Jay Z, had been unfaithful.
If Beyonce sweeps the awards, she would
make MTV history. Peter Gabriel holds the record for the most VMAs in a
single night, taking home 10 in 1987 amid a global following for his
animation-driven “Sledgehammer.”
– Posthumous nods for Bowie –
Other nominees for Video of the Year
included Kanye West’s controversial “Famous,” in which the rapper boasts
that pop superstar Taylor Swift may sleep with him and that he made her
famous.
Despite her protests over the song, the
video features a naked woman in bed with West who resembles Swift as
well as nude doppelgangers of other celebrities including Republican
presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Also in the running for the top prize
were two videos dominated by dancing — rapper Drake’s “Hotline Bling”
and pop celebrity Justin Bieber’s “Sorry.”
Bieber’s “Sorry” is the sixth most
watched video ever on YouTube, closely trailing Adele’s “Hello,” which
was released on the same day last year.
The late rock icon David Bowie’s video for “Lazarus” took four nominations, although not in the main categories.
Bowie, who embraced music videos as an
art form when MTV was in its infancy, released “Lazarus” three days
before stunning the world with his death from an unannounced battle with
cancer.
The video, in hindsight, was full of
foreshadowing of his death with the singer levitating over a hospital
bed and retreating into a closet with outfits from his prolific music
career.
– ‘Disappointed’ Jonas –
The VMAs have often been more closely
watched for incidents at the televised gala than for actual winners, who
are determined by fan voting.
At last year’s awards, West vowed to run for president in 2020, although his level of seriousness was unclear.
In one small controversy already this
year, Nick Jonas said on Twitter he was “disappointed” he was not
nominated for “Closer,” in which he and Swedish singer Tove Lo grope
longingly for each other but struggle to connect physically.
But minutes later, the onetime child star tweeted that he would not let himself be bothered by “small stuff.”
“Actually after thinking about it more,
there are so many amazing things happening in my life and career. Nine
out of 10 boxes are checked.”
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