MTV Releases 2016 VMA Nominations

It’s that time of the year again. MTV released the nominations for the 2016 Video Music Awards on Tuesday, July 26th. Leading the pack in nominations is Beyonce (surprising no one), with a career high 11 nominations, including Video of the Year. She is also nominated in the VMA’s newest category, Breakthrough Long Form Video, for her visual album Lemonade, which she released earlier this year.

Noticeably absent from the nominees is Taylor Swift. Last year she led in the nominations with 10. It is rumored that her videos were released later and so they were overlooked. It is also rumored that she wasn’t nominated because of how many awards she won the previous year. Many fans of the show were quick to point out the drama that happened before last year’s show between Nicki Minaj and Taylor.

Nicki was upset her video for “Anaconda” was overlooked for Video of the Year and was very opinionated about it on Twitter. Taylor thought Nicki was attacking her video and the drama began but was quickly cut short. The two performed together at the VMA’s 2015 to prove there was no “Bad Blood” between them.

Check out some of the nominations below. To see the full list of nominees and to vote, click here.

VIDEO OF THE YEAR

Adele – “Hello”

Beyoncé – “Formation”

Drake – “Hotline Bling”

Justin Bieber – “Sorry”

Kanye West – “Famous”

BEST COLLABORATION

Beyoncé ft. Kendrick Lamar – “Freedom”

Fifth Harmony ft. Ty Dolla $ign – “Work From Home”

Ariana Grande ft. Lil Wayne – “Let Me Love You”

Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna – “This Is What You Came For”

Rihanna ft. Drake – “Work” (short version)

BEST HIP HOP VIDEO

Drake – “Hotline Bling”

Desiigner – “Panda”

Bryson Tiller – “Don’t”

Chance The Rapper ft. Saba – “Angels”

2 Chainz – “Watch Out”

BEST NEW ARTIST

Bryson Tiller

Desiigner

Zara Larsson

Lukas Graham

DNCE

BEST DIRECTION

Beyoncé – “Formation” (Director: Melina Matsoukas)

Coldplay – “Up&Up” (Director: Vania Heymann, Gal Muggia)

Adele – “Hello” (Director: Xavier Dolan)

David Bowie – “Lazarus” (Director: Johan Renck)

Tame Impala – “The Less I Know The Better” (Director: Canada)