The MTV Video Music Awards will be presented Sunday at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, with Snoop Dogg hosting, Madonna opening the show and Nirvana and Taylor Swift receiving special honors.
The VMAs will air live beginning at 4:30 p.m. Sunday on CBS, simulcast on MTV and streamed on Paramount+ Premium. The ceremony marks the awards’ first return to the West Coast since 2017, according to the networks.
Madonna enters the ceremony with a leading 11 nominations, including video of the year for “Confessions II – The Film.” Taylor Swift has nine nominations, while Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter each have seven.
Madonna, Grande, Bruno Mars, Carpenter and Swift are also nominated for artist of the year, along with Morgan Wallen.
Snoop Dogg, a three-time VMA winner who has received 13 nominations during his career, will host the ceremony.
“MTV and the VMAs have been part of my story since the beginning,” Snoop Dogg said when his hosting role was announced. “Some of the biggest moments of my career happened on that stage and on MTV — they gave hip hop a place to be loud, fearless and seen by the whole world. So to come back now and host the VMAs, all these years later, that’s a full-circle moment for me.”
Nirvana will receive the Video Vanguard Award, 35 years after the band’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video was filmed in Culver City.
The Seattle-area rock band won its first VMAs in 1992, when “Smells Like Teen Spirit” received awards for Best New Artist in a Video and Best Alternative Video. Nirvana won five VMAs during its career.
Swift will receive the inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honor, recognizing her work behind the camera on music videos and films. She is a seven-time nominee for the VMA best director award. The honor will give Swift her 31st VMA, breaking her tie with Beyoncé, who has 30, and making Swift the most-awarded artist in VMA history.
Swift has directed projects including “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Opalite,” “The Man,” “cardigan,” “willow,” “All Too Well: The Short Film,” “Anti-Hero,” “Bejeweled” and “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone).”
“Across her work, Swift has brought an increasingly expansive approach to storytelling, creating interconnected narratives, cinematic worlds and recurring details that invite audiences deeper into each project,” according to an MTV statement. “The inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors recognizes that body of work, while also underscoring the growing role artists play in shaping how their music is brought to life on screen.”
Madonna is expected to open the show with a performance. Other scheduled performers include GENER8ION, Gunna, LISA, RAYE, Shaboozey, SIENNA SPIRO and Yung Lean.
Madonna’s opening performance will mark her first live performance at the VMAs in 23 years. She last performed at the ceremony in 2003, when Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera joined her for the show’s opening performance.
Madonna has won 19 VMAs during her career.
RAYE, Sombr and Teddy Swims will also perform a tribute to the late George Michael, 40 years after the release of his album “Faith.”
Michael, who died in 2016 at age 53, won four VMAs during his career and received the Video Vanguard Award in 1989.
RAYE will make her VMAs performance debut with a solo performance in addition to taking part in the Michael tribute. She is nominated twice this year, including for song of the year for “Where Is My Husband!”
Sombr is nominated for three VMAs, while Swims is a previous VMA nominee.
Other nominees for video of the year are Grande for “hate that i made you love me,” Mars for “I Just Might,” GENER8ION for “STORM starring Yung Lean,” Carpenter for “Tears” and Swift for “The Fate of Ophelia.”