Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran receive VMA nominations

The nominations for the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards have been announced.

Singer Taylor Swift received the most nominations, getting nods in the categories of video of the year, best female video, best pop video, and best collaboration, among other categories. Beyoncé also got various nominations, including video of the year, best female video, and best pop video. Singer Ed Sheeran also did well, getting nods for video of the year, best male video, and best pop video. 

Other nominees in the category of video of the year, considered the biggest award at the ceremony, include Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars for “Uptown Funk” and Kendrick Lamar for “Alright.” Ms. Swift earned her nod for “Bad Blood,” which includes work by Mr. Lamar, while Beyoncé was nominated for “7/11” and Mr. Sheeran for “Thinking Out Loud.” 

The nominees for best male video are Sheeran for "Thinking Out Loud," Ronson and Mars for “Funk,” Lamar for “Alright,” The Weeknd for “Earned It,” and Nick Jonas for “Chains.” Swift’s nod for best female video is for the song “Blank Space,” Beyonce’s is also for “7/11,” and Nicki Minaj earned a nod in the category for the song “Anaconda,” while Ellie Goulding received one for the song “Love Me Like You Do” and Sia was nominated in the category for “Elastic Heart.” 

The nominees for best hip-hop video are Ms. Minaj for “Anaconda,” Fetty Wap for “Trap Queen,” Lamar for “Alright,” Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth for “See You Again,” and Big Sean and E-40 for “I Don’t [expletive] With You.”

The best rock video nominees are Hozier for “Take Me To Church,” Fall Out Boy for “Uma Thurman,” Florence + The Machine for “Ship To Wreck,” Walk the Moon for “Shut Up and Dance,” and the Arctic Monkeys for “Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?” 

The nominees for best pop video are almost all the same as those for video of the year – Beyoncé got a nod for “7/11,” as did Swift, though this one is for “Blank Space,” and Sheeran received one for “Thinking Out Loud,” while Ronson and Mars got one for “Funk.” Maroon 5 also earned a nod for “Sugar.”

The artists to watch category is made up of Fetty Wap, Vance Joy, George Ezra, James Bay, and FKA Twigs, while the nominees for Best Collaboration are Swift and Lamar for “Bad Blood”; Ronson and Mars for “Funk”; Khalifa and Puth for “See You Again”; Ariana Grande and the Weeknd for “Love Me Harder”; and Jessie J, Minaj, and Grande for “Bang Bang.”

The nominees for best video with a social message are Jennifer Hudson for “I Still Love You”; Colbie Caillat for “Try”; Big Sean, Kanye West, and John Legend for “One Man Can Change the World”; Rihanna for “American Oxygen”; and Wale for “The White Shoes.”

In addition, singer Miley Cyrus announced she will be hosting the ceremony. Ms. Cyrus, of course, was the subject of headlines in 2013 when she performed at the VMA Awards with a routine that some found offensive. Some have speculated that MTV invited Cyrus to host specifically to recapture some of the ratings attention it received with Cyrus’s performance. Last year’s ceremony was down 18 percent from the 2013 ratings. Ratings from the 2013 show in which Cyrus performed were much improved from those from the year before, which were the lowest in 16 years for the show. The very low ratings for 2012 could also be attributed to having the show air on a Thursday rather than a Sunday. Since that year, the show has been back on Sunday nights.