Beyonce and Adele are the top nominees at the MTV Video Music Awards, where their music videos will compete against Kanye West’s controversial “Famous” for video of the year.
“Famous,” Beyonce’s “Formation” and Adele’s “Hello” will battle Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” and Drake’s “Hotline Bling” for the top prize when the VMAs air live Aug. 28 from New York’s Madison Square Garden. The nominations were announced Tuesday.
West’s infamous “Famous” features what appears to be naked images of the rapper and other celebrities, including Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump and Bill Cosby. The song is at the center of his current war with Swift: Kardashian recently leaked audio of Swift giving West her blessing after he told her the lyric, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.” But Swift later said she was upset because West did not play her the entire track or tell her the full lyric regarding her, which included the line, “Why? I made that bitch famous.”
Beyonce, though, is the overall VMA leader with 11 nominations – marking a career best for the pop diva, who released her Emmy-nominated “Lemonade” visual album this year. Adele is behind her with eight nominations.
The songstresses will compete for best female video along with Rihanna, Sia and Ariana Grande.
West is nominated for best male video against Drake, the Weeknd, Bryson Tiller and Calvin Harris, whose nomination is for “This is What You Came For,” which he co-wrote with former girlfriend Swift.
David Bowie, who died from cancer earlier this year, is nominated for best direction, cinematography, art direction and editing for “Lazarus” – a video that showed him frail and lying in bed, eyes bandaged. It was released several days before the icon’s Jan. 10 death.
Others who earned multiple nominations include Coldplay, Desiigner, Fergie and Alessia Cara.
Fans can start voting online Tuesday. Nominees for best song of summer will be announced at a later date.
Swift won last year’s video of the year with “Bad Blood,” which featured Kendrick Lamar and included cameos from Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham and others.
Nominations rundown
The nominees are:
— Video of the year: Adele, “Hello”; Beyonce, “Formation”; Drake, “Hotline Bling”; Justin Bieber, “Sorry”; Kanye West, “Famous.”
— Best female video: Adele, “Hello”; Beyoncé, “Hold Up”; Sia, “Cheap Thrills”; Ariana Grande, “Into You”; Rihanna featuring Drake, “Work.”
— Best male video: Drake, “Hotline Bling”; Bryson Tiller, “Don’t”; Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna, “This Is What You Came For”; Kanye West, “Famous”; The Weeknd, “Can’t Feel My Face.”
— Best new artist: Bryson Tiller; Desiigner; Zara Larsson; Lukas Graham; DNCE.
— Best pop video: Adele, “Hello”; Beyonce, “Formation”; Justin Bieber, “Sorry”; Alessia Cara, “Wild Things”; Ariana Grande, “Into You.”
— Best hip hop video: Drake, “Hotline Bling”; Desiigner, “Panda”; Bryson Tiller, “Don’t”; Chance the Rapper featuring Saba, “Angels”; 2 Chainz, “Watch Out.”
— Best rock video: All Time Low, “Missing You”; Coldplay, “Adventure of a Lifetime”; Fall Out Boy featuring Demi Lovato, “Irresistible”; twenty one pilots, “Heathens”; Panic! at the Disco, “Victorious.”
— Best electronic video: Calvin Harris & Disciples, “How Deep Is Your Love”; 99 Souls featuring Destiny’s Child and Brandy, “The Girl Is Mine”; Mike Posner, “I Took A Pill In Ibiza”; Afrojack, “SummerThing!”; The Chainsmokers featuring Daya, “Don’t Let Me Down.”
— Best collaboration: Beyonce featuring Kendrick Lamar, “Freedom”; Fifth Harmony featuring Ty Dolla $ign, “Work from Home”; Ariana Grande featuring Lil Wayne, “Let Me Love You”; Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna, “This Is What You Came For”; Rihanna featuring Drake, “Work.”
— Breakthrough long form video: Florence + the Machine, “The Odyssey”; Beyonce, “Lemonade”; Justin Bieber, “PURPOSE: The Movement”; Chris Brown, “Royalty”; Troye Sivan, “Blue Neighbourhood Trilogy.”
— Best art direction: Beyonce, “Hold Up”; Fergie, “M.I.L.F. $”; Drake, “Hotline Bling”; David Bowie, “Blackstar”; Adele, “Hello.”
— Best choreography: Beyonce, “Formation”; Missy Elliott featuring Pharrell, “WTF (Where They From)”; Beyonce, “Sorry”; FKA Twigs, “M3LL155X”; Florence + the Machine, “Delilah.”
— Best direction: Beyonce, “Formation”; Coldplay, “Up&Up”; Adele, “Hello”; David Bowie, “Lazarus”; Tame Impala, “The Less I Know the Better.”
— Best cinematography: Beyonce, “Formation”; Adele, “Hello”; David Bowie, “Lazarus”; Alesso, “I Wanna Know”; Ariana Grande, “Into You.”
— Best editing: Beyonce, “Formation”; Adele, “Hello”; Fergie, “M.I.L.F. $”; David Bowie, “Lazarus”; Ariana Grande, “Into You.”
— Best visual effects: Coldplay, “Up&Up”; FKA Twigs, “M3LL155X”; Adele, “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)”; The Weeknd, “Can’t Feel My Face”; Zayn, “PILLOWTALK.”
