2022 VMA nominees who were also nominated at the first VMAs in 1984 – Billboard

Two of the artists nominated for the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards go way back with the VMAs, all the way back to the very first show in 1984.

Madonna, who is nominated for Best Long Form Music Video for “MADAME X,” was nominated for Best New Artist in a Video at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards for “Borderline.” She didn’t win – the prize went to Eurythmics for “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This”) – but she came away with something even better than a prize: she stole the show with her performance fully committed to “Like a Virgin”. in which she was writhing on the floor of Radio City Music Hall in a wedding dress.

The other 2022 VMAs contestant who was nominated at the first VMAs is Elton John. The pop legend is nominated this year for Song of the Year and Best Collaboration for “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix),” his hit collaboration with Dua Lipa. Elton was also a double nominee at the first show, for the exuberant “I’m Still Standing,” which was up for Best Choreography in a Video and Best Editing in a Video.

The VMA nominations were announced on Tuesday. The awards will be presented on August 28 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ

Elton has never won in a competitive VMA category, although he and longtime partner Bernie Taupin received a special recognition award in 1987. (It would be nice if Elton finally won one of the few awards that gave him escaped. Now he just needs to buckle up and win an Emmy so he can become an EGOT.)

Madonna has won 19 competitive VMAs and one non-competitive award, the Video Vanguard Award. Interestingly, she received this award in 1986, a year before she finally won her first VMA contest for “Daddy Don’t Preach.”

Madonna’s biggest night at the VMAs came in 1998 when she won six awards – five for “Ray of Light” and one for “Frozen.” “Ray of Light” brought Madonna her only VMA for Video of the Year, following back-to-back nods in that category for “Like a Prayer” in 1989 and “Vogue” in 1990.

Madonna’s most recent victory at the VMAs was in 1999 when “Beautiful Stranger” by Austin Powers: The Spy Who Fucked Me won Best Video from a Motion Picture.

But the 1984 show is where she seized the moment, took a huge risk (it could have been remembered as a disaster) and became the most talked about star in the music industry. overnight. At the time of the VMAs (September 14, 1984), she had yet to reach the Billboard 200 top 10 and had only cracked the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 once, with “Borderline”, which peaked at No. ° 1. 10 in June. Within five months, she topped both charts for several weeks.

In his 2017 list of the 100 Greatest Awards Show Performances of All Time, BillboardAssociate Editor Andrew Unterberger ranked Madonna’s performance at the 1984 VMAs #2 (second only to Beyoncé’s). Lemonade medley on the same show in 2016). Here’s how Unterberger described it: “The vocals are high-pitched at times, the staging feels a bit messy, and the presentation is downright low-budget by modern standards.” But if you had to pick a four-minute clip to show off what an awards show performance could and should be at its best, there’d be absolutely no debate: Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” in which she resigned from a marriage. cake at the very first Video Music Awards and worked its way deep into the heart of the 1980s. Before Madonna, the best performance you could hope for at an awards show was to get people to buy the record, after her, they or they became the historic record; how we remember the most iconic stars and how they demonstrate their immortality, no matter whose names are in the sheaths of the night. This is the real big bang for the pop art format.

Several of the top nominees and performers of the 1984 awards have since passed away, sobering, but perhaps unsurprising. Thirty-eight years is a long time. Among them are David Bowie, who was an early recipient of the Video Vanguard Award, the first Best Male Video winner for “China Girl,” and a performer on the show (albeit pre-recorded and from London , where he sang his current hit “Blue Jean”).

Other 1984 nominees who have since died include Michael Jackson, Video of the Year nominee for “Thriller” and three-time winner of the night (though he didn’t show up: his awards were all accepted by his girlfriend Diana Ross); Donna Summer, nominated for Best Female Video for “She Works Hard for the Money”; as well as many band members – Ric Ocasek of The Cars (the Upset Video of the Year winners for “You Might Think”), Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, Eddie Van Halen of Van Halen, Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones, Freddie Mercury of Queen, Eric Carr of KISS and Eric Woolfson of the Alan Parsons Project.

Dan Aykroyd, one of the highest-grossing film stars of 1984, ghost hunters, and Bette Midler, who was between hits at the time but still a hoot, co-hosted the early VMAs. Performers on the show, in addition to Madonna and Bowie, were Tina Turner (“What’s Love Got to Do With It”, which went on to win the Grammys for Record and Song of the Year in February 1985), Rod Stewart (“Infatuation”), Huey Lewis & the News (“I Want a New Drug”), ZZ Top (“Sharp Dressed Man”) and Ray Parker Jr. (“Ghostbusters”).