An overview of MTV VMA ceremony and 2017 awardees
The MTV Video Music Awards, also known as the VMAs, are awards presented by the MTV channel. This category of award was constituted to honor the best in the music video genre. It was perceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards, but for the video category. The annual VMA ceremony is often called the “Super Bowl for Youth” because of the awards’ capability to attract the youth. The first VMA ceremony was held in 1984, and within a span of around 15 years, it became one of the most popular awards. The award statue, shaped as an astronaut on the moon, is referred to as the “Moon Person”, a coin termed by Chris McCarthy, the current President of MTV.
Every year, the annual VMA ceremony takes place either during late August or mid-September, usually in New York or Los Angeles. The awards ceremony is broadcast live on MTV. In addition, the nominations as well as the details of the VMA ceremony is covered by a number of news publications, including online news sites such as the Monitor Daily.
The 2017 MTV Video Music Awards were held on August 27 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Hosted by American singer-songwriter Katy Perry, this year’s awards focused on honoring the music released between June 25, 2016 to June 23, 2017. Some of the different categories under which artists were nominated included Artist of the Year, Best Pop, Best Dance, Best Rock, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Choreography.
Kendrick Lamar, the American rapper-songwriter, won a total of six awards. He also won the coveted ‘Video of the Year’ for his track “Humble”. Kanye West received the award for Best Choreography for “Fade”. Artist Pink was honored with the Video Vanguard Award. Jared Leto, of ‘30 Seconds to Mars’ paid tribute to the late artists, Chester Bennington and Chris. Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” premiered during the broadcast of the ceremony. Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, better known by his stage name “Logic” performed his song “1-800-273-8255” along with Alesia Cara and Khalid. Their performance also featured survivors of suicide loss and suicide attempts. They wore T-shirts that had the eponymous phone number on the front, with “You Are Not Alone” written on the back.
According to Nielson, the global marketing research company, the overall viewership of this show saw a 17% decline as the audience decreased from 6.5 million in 2016 to 5.4 million in 2017. This is the lowest viewership over the past 20 years. The reason attributed behind this drop was primarily that it collided with the season finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones, which drew over 12.07 million viewers. In addition, since the VMA ceremony can now be streamed online as well, viewers enjoy the flexibility to watch it at their own pace and time.
