2012 VMA Video Of The Year Race Pits Drake Against Rihanna

 

The fellas are going to have to bring their A game if they want to take home the Video of the Year moonman at the 29th annual 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. Seeking to break the four-year run of female VOTY winners are Drake and Gotye, who will vie for the honor against Katy Perry, Rihanna and M.I.A.

The action will all go down live on September 6 at 8 p.m. EST from the Staples Center in Los Angeles during a show that will feature performances from four-time VMA veteran Alicia Keys and VMA first-timers One Direction. Click here for the full list of 2012 VMA nominees.

The video of the year category is anyone's game, but 2011 winner Perry certainly has the inside track thanks to the gothic sleepwalking clip for "Wide Awake" . The epic video , which borrows from author Lewis Carroll's classic book "Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There," is a kind of shorthand look at the singer's hectic past few years.

Trapped in a labyrinth, Perry discovers her lost innocence in the form of a young girl, as she gets hounded by hellish paparazzi and finds her Prince Charming, who may have a double-cross in mind. Read into what you will, but Perry certainly doesn't play coy with this one.

Another girl with love troubles to work out on film is Rihanna. In her exploration of a love undone by substances and violence , she shares the screen with British boxer/model Dudley O'Shaughnessy as the pair of gutter punks stumble their way through Belfast, Ireland in a haze of post-coital bliss, drug-fueled benders and physical altercations.

There is no such angst in the body-painted video for Gotye's breakthrough hit, "Somebody That I Used To Know." In a nod to the low-concept efforts from MTV's early 1980's heyday, "Somebody" finds the mostly naked singer and equally exposed pal Kimbra blending into abstract background courtesy of geometrical shape body paint applied to match a piece of art created by Gotye's father, Frank de Backer.

M.I.A. hardly does anything that doesn't involve some political or social statement and the ghost-riding accompaniment to "Bad Girls" was no exception. In what appears to be a statement on the Saudi Arabian government's ban on female drivers, M.I.A. traveled to Morocco to film women in Arab garb getting behind the wheels and performing a type of stylized Middle Eastern form of drifting known as hagwala.

If Drake is going to score some VOTY moon rock, he's gonna have to share it with Rihanna. The Young Money MC who isn't afraid to show his sensitive side made one of the best videos of his career with the maudlin, monochromatic "Take Care."

Packed with expansive, icy landscapes, achingly tense slow-motion footage and artfully framed animals, the minimal clip doesn't really take you anywhere as it depicts the pair amid images of birds taking flight, bulls charging and a shower of arrows.

But, somehow, at the end, after the pair shares a tender, sexually charged embrace and all that's left is burning trees and smoking earth, you feel exhausted and satisfied.

Who will hop into a limo at night's end with the Video of the Year moonman? It's anyone's guess, but whoever it is will have earned their spot.

Beginning Tuesday, July 31, at 6 a.m. ET, viewers can vote for general VMA categories, including Video of the Year, Best New Artist and more, by visiting VMA.MTV.com online or m.mtv.com on their mobile phone. In addition, Best New Artist is available for voting via all wireless carrier subscribers by texting BNA to 22444 or by visiting MTV's official Facebook page.

The 2012 MTV Video Music Awards will air live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Thursday, September 6, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Bieber, Gaga dominate MTV Europe Awards in Belfast

Awards co-host David Hasselhoff presents Lady Gaga with an award. Picture: Source: AFP

  Canadian singer Justin Bieber poses on the red carpet at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Picture: Source: AFP  

  Lady Gaga performs on stage at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Picture: Gareth Cattermole / Source: Getty Images  

UPDATE 11.15am: THE MTV Europe Music Awards turned into a celebration of Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga today as the two picked up a number of top prizes, including best male and best female act.

Gaga, striking in several outfits throughout the evening, also won for best song and best video for Born This Way. Bieber picked up best pop act as well.

Their live performances captured the differences between the two ascendant mega-stars: the teenage Bieber, wholesome and almost impossibly cute; Gaga challenging and aggressively sexual in her approach.

The Edge Of Glory singer balanced on a model of a moon for her performance and flashed her bottom to the audience at the end, Sky News reported.

Other awards went to Bruno Mars, Eminem and Katy Perry while the band Queen received the Global Icon award, in effect a lifetime achievement award to the now-graying rockers, who closed the show with a spirited set of their classics, including We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions.

 

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It was a rousing end to the awards show, a highlight on the European music calendar that also draws A-list stars from the United States. It was held in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the first time.

Queen guitarist Brian May said the show focused attention on how Belfast had found "true peace" after years of sectarian violence.

"It's wonderful to be in Belfast," he said.

The show also included a video tribute to the late Amy Winehouse, who died earlier this year in London.

But the evening was dominated by Bieber and Gaga, the two crowd favorites.

The casually dressed Bieber said modestly that he had voted for competitor Kanye West and thanked his fans and family for his first award.

"Never say never, right?" he said, waving his trophy in the air.

After he won his second award, for best pop act, he praised his fans for staying with him despite "a lot of crap on the Internet," an apparent reference to unsupported allegations that he had fathered a child after a brief liaison.

Bieber took the stage a few minutes after Gaga accepted her award in characteristic style.

"Thank you so much, I love you so much. I'm so grateful. I'm really smiling right now, but I know you can't tell," said Gaga, wearing a bizarre silver dress with an oversize tilted hat that completely covered her face except for tiny holes that allowed her to see. She joked that she had had a lot of Botox treatment.

Gaga, who has enjoyed a year of spectacular commercial success, triumphed over a strong field that included a resurgent Jennifer Lopez, Adele, Katy Perry and Beyonce.

She later won awards for best video and best song for Born This Way. She thanked her "little monsters" for their support and said she regarded Born This Way as her most important work to date. She also won an award for having the best fan base.

Earlier, Perry - dressed in a mostly pink jacket and miniskirt - won the best live act award, and the American band Thirty Seconds to Mars won best alternative act and best world stage.

American rapper Eminem was named best hip hop act and Linkin Park took the prize for best rock band.

The show featured performances by headliners Bieber, Gaga, Bruno Mars - who won for best newcomer and for "best push" - Coldplay, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snow Patrol and other top acts.

Chris Martin, the Coldplay frontman, joked that the band was just "warming everyone up for Justin" on his way into the awards ceremony, which was hosted by Bieber's girlfriend, the actress and singer Selena Gomez.

She admitted she was nervous about her performance while being photographed on the red carpet just before the show.

The awards, which were set up in 1994, have previously featured performances by stars including U2, Paul McCartney, Take That, Beyonce and Jay-Z.

MTV EUROPE MUSIC AWARDS WINNERS:

Best Song

Lady Gaga - "Born This Way"

 

Best Video

Lady Gaga - "Born This Way"

 

Best Female

Lady Gaga

 

Best Male

Justin Bieber

 

Best New Act

Bruno Mars

 

Best Pop

Justin Bieber

 

Best Rock

Linkin Park

 

Best Alternative

30 Seconds to Mars

 

Best Hip-Hop

Eminem

 

Best Live Act

Katy Perry

 

Best World Stage performance

30 Seconds to Mars

 

Best Push Act

Bruno Mars

 

Biggest Fans

Lady Gaga

 

Best Worldwide Act

Big Bang

 

Global Icon

Queen

 

MTV Voices Award

Justin Bieber

...with AFP

via heraldsun.com.au