Katy Perry will take us to space as the host of this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. The singer took social media to share the news on Thursday.
Perry will not only host but also perform in the annual ceremony, that will be held at The Forum in Inglewood, California, on August 27.
Katy Perry is taking on new hights
Katy Perry announced last week that she’ll be hosting this year’s VMAs, which will be held on 27th August. Perry made the announcement on Thursday via her social media accounts. Sharing a space-themed 30 seconds video, the singer delivered the news and a sneak peek of what’s to come.
Bruce Gillmer, Viacom and Global Entertainment Group’s head of music and music talent, added.
“We’re thrilled to have global phenomenon Katy Perry as the host and a performer at the 2017 VMAs.” ; “She is at the forefront of music culture and the perfect person to anchor this year’s show, which promises to be one of the most diverse and music-filled in VMA history,” he added.
As for Perry, she’s taking things quite seriously and is embracing all things ‘space.’ She’s even in a selected group chat with A-list space experts.
“I’ve been training with MTV in zero gravity, eating astronaut ice cream, and I’m on a group text with Buzz Aldrin and Neil deGrasse Tyson,” she said.
Considering Buzz Aldrin was one of the first men to walk on the moon, alongside Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission back in 196, Katy is all set for a proper moonwalk. Perry has also promised to bring a feminist edge to the awards next month, with plans to transform MTV’s famous Moon Man statuette.
This will be Perry’s first time hosting the VMAs. Last year’s show did not have a traditional host but featured Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as commentators. In 2015, Miley Cyrus hosted the show.
The VMAs isn’t Perry’s only upcoming high-profile TV gig. The Grammy winner is set to serve as a judge on ABC’s revival of “American Idol,” alongside host Ryan Seacrest.
Another year, another crazy ceremony
The VMA nominations were revealed earlier this month in all the millennial way. Influencers made the announcement via an Instagram Live, including Bretman Rock, Ariel Martin (Baby Ariel), DC Young Fly, Andrea Russet, Chantel Jeffries, Ricky Dillon, StassiBaby, Jay Versace and Nate Garner.
Each influencer was tasked with unveiling a portion of the nominees on Instagram Live in a successive chain that ultimately revealed the full list.
Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar will go up against Ariana Grande for best artist at the MTV Video Music Awards after judges scrapped gendered categories.
Lamar leads the way with eight nominations in the first time the annual ceremony has done away with best female and best male video groups.
Lamar scores a nomination for video of the year for HUMBLE., as does Mars’s 24K Magic, DJ Khaled’s Wild Thoughts, Alessia Cara’s Scars To Your Beautiful and Reminder by The Weeknd.
Fans can vote on the MTV website to decide the winners at the ceremony, to be held in Inglewood, California, on August 27.
As well as taking center stage at the awards ceremony, Perry is nominated in five categories, including Best Collaboration, Best Pop, Best Direction, Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects.
The show also announced a pair of award tweaks: Best Male Video and Best Female Video have been combined into the non-gender-specific Artist of the Year, echoing similar move by the MTV Movie & TV Awards earlier this year.
And the Best Fight Against the System category has been added “to celebrate videos that inspire viewers to stand up and fight injustice.”
Going big, and definitely not home
The announcement comes ahead of Perry’s world tour for her recent album ‘Witness‘, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts.
And she’s quite the music video queen — her recent visual for “Bon Appétit” surpassed 100 million views in just 18 days, while the video for Teenage Dream’s “Firework,” which won Video of the Year in 2011, just passed one billion.
Earlier this month, Katy launched a new competition to find a dancer to star in the forthcoming video for her Nicki Minaj featuring single “Swish Swish” off her new album ‘Witness.’
Perry is hosting the competition alongside the dance entertainment platform, DanceOn.
In a video, Perry said she would select her “favorite” dancer to perform in the “Swish Swish” video, which was scheduled to be filmed later on July.
Perry’s #SwishSwishChallenge marks the pop star’s second viral campaign around a ‘Witness’ single.
In May, following the release of “Bon Appetite” with Migos, she launched the #BonAppetitChallenge, though its objective was a bit vaguer than the #SwishSwishChallenge.
Perry released Witness in June, marking her first album since 2013’s ‘Prism’. The pop star will embark on a fall tour in support of the LP September 7th in Columbus, Ohio.
Source: The Sun