| MTV Video Music Awards | |
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| Current: 2024 MTV Video Music Awards | |
 The 1983–1984 Video of the Year "Moonman" award | |
| Awarded for | Music videos and pop culture |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | MTV |
| First awarded | September 14, 1984 |
| Website | mtv.com/ontv/vma |
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The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category), the annual MTV Video Music Awards ceremony has often been called the Super Bowl for youth, an acknowledgment of the VMA ceremony's ability to draw millions of youth from teens to 20-somethings each year.[1] By 2001, the VMA had become a coveted award.[2]
The annual VMA ceremony occurs before the end of summer and held either in late August or mid-September, and broadcast live on MTV, along with a "roadblock" simulcast across MTV's sister networks since 2014, which is utilized to maximize the ceremony's ratings. The first VMA ceremony was held in 1984 at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. The ceremonies are normally held in either New York City or Los Angeles. However, the ceremonies have also been hosted in Miami, Las Vegas, and Newark, New Jersey.[3]
The statue given to winners is an astronaut on the Moon, one of the earliest representations of MTV, and was colloquially called a "moonman", though it has been called a "moon person" by MTV since the 2017 ceremony. The statue was conceived by Manhattan Design, who were also designers of the original MTV logo, based on the 1981 Top of the Hour animation created by Fred Seibert and produced by Alan Goodman and Buzz Potamkin at Buzzco Associates. The statue is now made by Society Awards, a New York City-based firm.[4] Since the 2006 ceremony, viewers are able to vote for their favorite videos in all general categories by visiting MTV's website.[5]
Taylor Swift is the most awarded solo artist in the history of the VMAs, having won 30 trophies between 2009 and 2024,[6] which includes record-breaking 5 Video of the Year VMAs ("Bad Blood", "You Need To Calm Down", All Too Well: The Short Film, "Anti-Hero" and "Fortnight").
- ^ Elliot, Stuart (August 20, 2004). "MTV's sponsors hope the Video Music Awards can draw a crowd, without wardrobe malfunctions". NYTimes.com. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
- ^ "MTV's irresistible rise". News.BBC.co.uk. July 1, 2000. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
- ^ Roth, Madeline (April 29, 2018). "The 2019 VMAs Will Go Where The Show Has Never Gone Before". MTV News. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
- ^ del Castillo, Michael. "Downtime: The man behind MTV's moonman". upstart.bizjournals.com.
- ^ "MTV Announces VMA Nominees". SpinMedia Group. July 31, 2006. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
- ^ "MTV Awards: Taylor Swift becomes biggest ever VMA winner". BBC Newsround. September 12, 2024. Retrieved September 12, 2024.