MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year | |
---|---|
Awarded for | Music videos |
Country | United States |
Presented by | MTV |
First awarded | 1984 |
Currently held by | "Fortnight" by Taylor Swift |
Most awards | Taylor Swift (5) |
Most nominations | Eminem (9) |
Website | Official website |
The MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year Presented by Burger King [1] is the most prestigious competitive award and the final award presented at the annual MTV Video Music Awards. [2] The award was created by the U.S. network MTV to honor artists with the best music videos. [3] At the first MTV Video Music Awards ceremony in 1984, the Video of the Year honor was presented to The Cars for the video "You Might Think". [4] Originally, all winners were determined by a special panel of music video directors, producers, and record company executives. [5] Since the 2006 awards, winners of major categories are determined by viewers' votes through MTV's website, while the jury decides in the technical categories. [6]
Taylor Swift holds the record for the most wins, with a total of five for "Bad Blood" (2015), "You Need to Calm Down" (2019), “All Too Well: The Short Film” (2022), “Anti-Hero" (2023) and ″Fortnight″ (2024). Swift and Eminem are tied for the most nominations, with seven as lead artists. [a] David Lee Roth (1985), U2 (1988), and Lady Gaga (2010) are the only acts to have had two Video of the Year nominations in a single ceremony. [8] Two acts have won both the Video of the Year and the honorary Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in the same night—Peter Gabriel in 1987 with "Sledgehammer" and Justin Timberlake in 2013 with "Mirrors". [9] [10] Swift is the first artist to win Video of the Year for a self-directed video, with All Too Well: The Short Film. Kendrick Lamar, Swift, and Lil Nas X have further won the award for a video they co-directed: Lamar for "Humble" in 2017, Swift for "You Need to Calm Down" in 2019, and Lil Nas X for "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" in 2021. [b] Taylor Swift is the artist who won most Video of the Year trophies for self-directed videos - she directed "All Too Well: The Short Film", "Anti-Hero" and "Fortnight".
† Marks winners of the Grammy Award for Best Music Video
*Marks nominees of the Grammy Award for Best Music Video
Year [c] | Winner(s) | Video | Nominees | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1984 | The Cars | "You Might Think" | [4] | |
1985 | Don Henley | "The Boys of Summer" | [12] | |
1986 | Dire Straits | "Money for Nothing" |
| [13] |
1987 | Peter Gabriel | "Sledgehammer" | [14] | |
1988 | INXS | "Need You Tonight" / "Mediate" | [15] | |
1989 | Neil Young | "This Note's for You" | [16] |
Year [g] | Winner(s) | Video | Nominees | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | The Weeknd | "Blinding Lights" |
| [48] |
2021 | Lil Nas X | "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)"* |
| [49] |
2022 | Taylor Swift | All Too Well: The Short Film † |
| [50] |
2023 | "Anti-Hero" |
| [51] | |
2024 | Taylor Swift (featuring Post Malone) | "Fortnight"* | [52] |
|
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The MTV Video Music Awards is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards, the annual MTV Video Music Awards ceremony has often been called the Super Bowl for youth, an acknowledgment of the VMA ceremony's ability to draw millions of youth from teens to 20-somethings each year. By 2001, the VMA had become a coveted award.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist has been given out since the first annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. Until 2006, the award was named Best New Artist in a Video. In 2007 its name was changed to Best New Artist, as the category underwent a format change to recognize the artist's body of work for the full year rather than a specific video. For the 2008 ceremony, the award retained its 2007 name but returned to the format of awarding a specific video rather than the artist's full body of work.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction is an award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and the director of the music video. From 1984 to 2006, the full name of the award was Best Direction in a Video, and in 2007, it was briefly renamed Best Director. The category acquired its current name with the 2008 awards.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography is a craft award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and choreographer of the music video. From 1984 to 2007, the full name of the award was Best Choreography in a Video. The biggest winner is Frank Gatson with six wins. Michael Rooney follows closely behind with five wins.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Art Direction is a craft award given to both the artist as well as the art director of the music video. From 1984 to 2006, the award's full name was Best Art Direction in a Video, and after a brief removal in 2007, its name was shortened to its current form starting in 2008. The biggest winners are K. K. Barrett and Jan Houllevigue, both of whom won this award twice.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography is a craft award given to both the artist as well as the cinematographer/director of photography of the music video.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best R&B was first awarded in 1993 under the name Best R&B Video, and it was given every year until 2006. The following year MTV revamped the VMAs and eliminated all the genre categories. However, in 2008, when MTV returned the Video Music Awards to their previous format, Best R&B Video did not return despite four other genre awards doing so. It was only in 2019 that the R&B award returned to the VMAs, now under the shorter name of Best R&B.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Hip Hop was first given out at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. The award, according to MTV, was originally intended for hip hop-inspired songs, not necessarily actual hip hop music videos. This explains the recognition of non-hip hop songs such as "Thong Song" and "I'm Real (Remix)".
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock was first given out in 1989, one of the four original genre categories added to the VMAs that year. In its first year, the award was called Best Heavy Metal Video, and from 1990 to 1995, it was renamed Best Metal/Hard Rock Video. The category underwent a third, brief name change in 1996, when it was renamed Best Hard Rock Video. In 1997, the award acquired its most enduring name, Best Rock Video, which it retained until 2016. The following year, the word "Video" was removed from all genre categories at the VMAs, giving this award its current name: Best Rock.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Pop was first given out in 1999 under the name of Best Pop Video, as MTV began to put several teen pop acts in heavy rotation. Nominations, however, were not just limited to pop acts, as dance, R&B, pop/rock, and reggaeton artists have also received nominations throughout the award's history.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative was first given out at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. Prior to being called Best Alternative Video, it was known as Best Post-Modern Video in 1989 and 1990.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Collaboration was first introduced to the MTV Video Music Awards in 2007 under the name Most Earthshattering Collaboration, as the VMAs were revamped and a few new categories were added to the show. When MTV brought the VMAs back to their old format in 2008, this category did not return. It was not until 2010 that the category was reintroduced under the name Best Collaboration.
The MTV Europe Music Award for Best Video is an award category presented at the MTV Europe Music Awards. The award was first presented in 1994 under the name Best Director, awarded to Whale's "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe". This is the only MTV EMA award - excluding special awards - whose winner is chosen by MTV, rather than by the public. "Hey Ya!", "Born This Way" and "Havana" are the only music videos to also win Best Song. The artist with the most wins is Taylor Swift with four wins. Taylor Swift is the artist with the most nominations, with seven. Swift and Kendrick Lamar are the only performers to have won the award for a video they co-directed: Lamar for "Humble" in 2017 and Swift for "Me!" in 2019.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best Latin was first introduced to the MTV Video Music Awards in 2010 under the name Best Latino Artist. The award was created to replace the Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica, which closed in 2009.
The MTV Video Music Award for Video for Good is an award handed out at the yearly MTV Video Music Awards, first introduced at the 2011 ceremony. Originally named Best Video with a Message, the word "Social" was added to its name in 2013.
The 2015 MTV Video Music Awards were held on August 30, 2015. The 32nd installment of the event was held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, and hosted by Miley Cyrus. Taylor Swift led the nominations with a total of ten, followed by Ed Sheeran, who had six, bringing his total number of mentions to 13. Swift's "Wildest Dreams" music video premiered during the pre-show. Cyrus also announced and released her studio album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, right after her performance at the end of the show. During his acceptance speech, Kanye West announced that he would be running in the 2020 United States presidential election. Taylor Swift won the most awards with four, including Video of the Year and Best Female Video. The VMA trophies were redesigned by Jeremy Scott.
The MTV Video Music Award for Artist of the Year is one of the biggest awards given at the annual MTV Video Music Awards. It was first introduced at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, replacing both the MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video and Best Female Video as MTV wanted to eliminate gender-specific awards.
The MTV Video Music Award for Best K-Pop award was first introduced at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2019. It was criticized by K-pop fans for segregating their artists from major categories such as Video of the Year and Artist of the Year.