MTV had a blank space, but didn’t write Taylor Swift’s name! The network announced the nominees for the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards Tuesday, July 26, and Swift was not on the list.
Us Weekly unveiled the full list of nominees via Facebook Live Tuesday afternoon, revealing that Beyoncé earned a career-best 11 nominations for her Lemonade visuals, while Adele landed eight nods for her hits “Hello” and “Send My Love (To Your New Lover).”
Swift, however, received zero nominations, a surprising turn of events for the 26-year-old singer, who led the pack of honorees at last year’s ceremony with 10 nominations for “Bad Blood.” It is possible, however, that Swift isn’t eligible this year because she took home so many awards in 2015 and her album came out in late 2014.
In the past year, the six-time VMA winner has released three music videos — “Wildest Dreams,” “Out of the Woods” and “New Romantics” — from her latest album, 1989.
Although the cinematic “Wildest Dreams” visual debuted during the 2015 VMA preshow, the network neglected to recognize it nearly a year later. “Out of the Woods” also landed a high-profile premiere on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in December 2015, but it was overlooked, too.
Last year, the VMAs made headlines when Nicki Minaj slammed MTV for snubbing “Anaconda” from the Video of the Year category. “If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year. I’m not always confident. Just tired. Black women influence pop culture so much but are rarely rewarded for it,” she tweeted at the time.
Swift mistakenly thought the rapper’s comment was about her “Bad Blood” nomination and quickly replied: “@NICKIMINAJ I’ve done nothing but love & support you. It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot.”
A month later, Minaj, 33, and the blonde songstress buried the hatchet and shocked fans with a surprise performance of their songs “Trini Dem Girls,” “The Night Is Still Young” and, of course, “Bad Blood.”
The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards air live from NYC’s Madison Square Garden Sunday, August 28, at 9 p.m. ET.
