By Mesfin Fekadu, Music Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift are the top contenders at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, each scoring 10 nominations.
MTV announced Tuesday that Grande and Swift will compete in eight of the same categories, including video of the year. Swift's gay pride anthem "You Need to Calm Down" and Grande's breezy hit about her breakups "thank u, next" are nominated for the top prize alongside Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy," Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus' "Old Town Road," 21 Savage and J. Cole's "A Lot," and Jonas Brothers' "Sucker."
Eilish, 17, came in second with nine nominations, including artist of the year. Other nominees are Grande, Cardi B, Shawn Mendes, Halsey and Jonas Brothers.
Lil Nas X, whose "Old Town Road" tied the record for most weeks at No. 1 with 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week, earned eight nominations.
The 2019 VMAs will take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on Aug. 26. Post Malone and Khalid were surprisingly snubbed: They both received zero nominations despite dominating on streaming services, radio and the Billboard charts with multiple hit songs in the last year.
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's Oscar- and Grammy-winning hit "Shallow" picked up two nominations: song of the year and best collaboration. Boy band BTS earned four nominations, including a bid in the new best K-pop category.
And late rapper Nipsey Hussle, who posthumously won best male hip-hop artist and the Humanitarian Award at last month's BET Awards, picked up a nomination for best hip hop for "Higher," his song and video with DJ Khaled and John Legend.
Swift will drop her album, "Lover," three days before the VMAs on Aug. 23, making it likely that she will attend and possibly perform at the show. Scooter Braun, who now owns Swift's music catalog, will likely be in attendance, too: He manages top nominee Grande as well as Justin Bieber, who earned a nomination for best collaboration with Ed Sheeran for "I Don't Care."
Comedian and actor Sebastian Maniscalco will host the 2019 VMAs. Fan-voting begins Tuesday at vma.mtv.com.
Damien Chazelle, Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons On The Return Of “Whiplash” To Theaters After 10 Years
Ten years after " Whiplash " took the film world by storm, Damien Chazelle's breakthrough feature is returning to theaters nationwide Friday.
In 2014, "Whiplash" was the ultimate indie movie Cinderella story — a Sundance discovery made by a 20-something that that would go on to become both a box office hit and an awards darling: It won three Oscars, including for J.K. Simmons ' portrayal of a semi-sadistic and ever quotable jazz ensemble instructor; launched Chazelle's directing career into the A-list stratosphere; and established Miles Teller as a next generation movie star. Now, audiences will get another chance to experience it on the big screen.
Chazelle, Teller and Simmons spoke recently about the re-release, their memories of the 20-day shoot (including when Teller accidentally broke his co-star's rib) and making something with staying power. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: What has it been like watching "Whiplash" settle into the culture in the past decade?
CHAZELLE: It's very cool, a little surreal. It doesn't feel like 10 years. It's fun to have a moment like this to relive it a little bit.
SIMMONS: It's sobering to know that I'm 10 years older. It's kind of shocking and kind of awesome that the movie actually holds up. I just saw it a few days ago in Toronto: That's a good piece of cinema.
TELLER: This is the first time I've ever had a movie re-released. I'm still fairly young into my career, but it's an incredible movie. The one thing that's frustrating for me is that people just yell out at me all the time, " not my tempo." So that's stuck around well.
SIMMONS: Maybe if you get the tempo... Read More