Entertainment

2016 MTV VMAs: Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Adele, Drake, Kanye & More Land Nominations

Published on: July 27, 2016 at 8:05 PM
By Page Mackinley

Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Rihanna, Adele, Drake, and more of your faves have earned multiple nominations in the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards.

Leading this year’s nominees in Tuesday’s announcement (revealed via murals, an idea borrowed from the Biebs’ 2015 Playbook when he revealed his Purpose album track titles), is Queen Beyoncé with 11 awards, including Video of the Year for “Formation” and a nod in a new VMAs category, Breakthrough Long Form Video, for her astonishing HBO concept film, Lemonade .

British counterpart Adele is somewhat close behind with a haul of eight nominations, seven of which are for her comeback music video for “Hello.” Among the songstress’ array is a nomination for Video of the Year. Joining the party is Toronto rapper Drake for “Hotline Bling,” Justin Bieber’s with “Sorry,” Kanye West’s “Famous,” and Beyoncé’s art-meets- politics “Formation” feast. Talk about a tough field.

The late, great David Bowie received four posthumous 2016 MTV Video Music Award nominations . His music video “Blackstar” is nominated for Best Art Direction, while “Lazarus” gets nods for Best Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.

Both songs appear on Bowie’s 25th and last studio album, Blackstar , which was released January 8. Just two days later, the music icon passed away at age 69 following a battle with cancer.

Bieber’s “Sorry” video features the Kiwi dance choreographer, director, and producer Parris Goebel and her world-famous The Royal Family dancers, all of whom are based in New Zealand. In a surprise twist, the Canadian singer didn’t appear in the visual. Instead, the troop showcased a colorful, fun, enthralling dancehall extravaganza which thrilled nearly everyone when it dropped last October.

Since then, the video has punched in over 1.6 billion views. In addition, the “Sorry” video is nominated for Best Pop Video, where it’s now facing off with Adele’s “Hello,” Beyoncé’s “Formation,” Alessia Cara’s “Wild Things,” and Ariana Grande’s “Into You.”

Bieber’s final MTV VMA’s nomination is for Breakthrough Long Form Video for Purpose: The Movement , a short film in which “Sorry” was just one of 13 dance videos set to each of the tracks on the standard edition of Bieber’s multi-million selling Purpose album. The series was directed and choreographed by Goebel and produced by Goebel, the Biebs, and his manager, Scooter Braun.

The 22-year-old singer appeared in two of the videos “Mark My Words” and the album title track “Purpose.”

After all the VMAs nominations rolled out, Goebel took to Twitter to thank her dancers for their efforts in making 13 videos in 22 days .

Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez were notably absent from nominations. The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards will air live from the legendary Madison Square Garden on Sunday, August 28 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Voting is already underway. Viewers can vote in numerous categories including “Video of the Year,” “Best Male Video” and “Best Female Video,” at vma.mtv.com.

For a full listing of MTV’s VMAs nominations click the link. Who are you rooting for to walk away with a Moonman? Justin Bieber , Drake, Beyonce — anyone else? Share your predictions and punts in comments below.

[Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images]

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