Katy Perry will receive MTV’s Video Vanguard Award and perform a career-spanning medley live at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday, Sept. 11, at 8 p.m. ET/PT from New York’s UBS Arena.
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Perry received the VMA’s other top honor, video of the year, in 2011 for “Firework.” She will be the 10th artist to receive both video of the year and the Vanguard award, following Madonna , Peter Gabriel , R.E.M. , Britney Spears , Justin Timberlake , Beyoncé , Rihanna , P!nk and Missy Elliott .
Perry, who hosted the VMAs in 2017, will be the first person to, over the course of a career, host and receive both of the show’s marquee awards — making her a VMAs MVP.
Perry and the VMAs are almost exactly the same age: Perry was born six weeks after the inaugural VMAs, co-hosted by Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd , aired on Sept. 14, 1984.
Perry is the seventh consecutive recipient of the Vanguard Award who is a woman, following Rihanna (2016), P!nk (2017), Jennifer Lopez (2018), Elliott (2019), Nicki Minaj (2022) and Shakira (2023). (There was no recipient in 2020 and 2021, the years most impacted by the pandemic.)
Perry made her VMAs performance debut in 2009 with a rendition of Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” on which she was joined by Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. She closed out the 2013 VMAs with a performance of her Billboard Hot 100 -topping smash “Roar” surrounded by fans near the Brooklyn Bridge. In 2017, she pulled double-duty as both host and performer, delivering a grand-finale performance of “Swish Swish” with Minaj that included larger-than-life props and Perry flying over the crowd to land atop a giant basketball hoop.
This is Perry’s sixth VMA Moonperson award. She won three trophies in 2011: video of the year for “Firework” and best collaboration and best special effects, both for “E.T.” (featuring Ye, then known as Kanye West). (The VMAs give artists credit for technical awards their videos win even if they weren’t personally credited in those capacities.) She won another VMA in 2012, best art direction for “Wide Awake,” and another in 2014, best female video for “Dark Horse” (featuring Juicy J).
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“Katy is a musical powerhouse and true pop culture icon,” Bruce Gillmer, president of music, music talent, programming & events, Paramount and chief content officer, music, Paramount+, said in a statement. “With her game-changing creative vision, she has become a global phenomenon and taken over the world’s biggest stages. Katy’s prowess will be on full display live on the VMAs with a can’t-miss, career-encompassing performance celebrating her biggest moments and chart-topping hits.”
MTV’s press release announcing Perry as the recipient referred to the award as the Video Vanguard Award twice (including once in the headline) and as the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award once. The award was named in Jackson’s honor in 1991, but the network has seemed to downplay the association somewhat since the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland raised disturbing allegations about the star’s behavior.
Perry has amassed nine No. 1 hits on the Hot 100 and three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 . Perry unveiled her new single, “Lifetimes,” on Aug. 8. The song is from her sixth major-label studio album, 143 , which will be released on Sept. 20 via Capitol Records.
MTV made its announcement on Thursday (Aug. 14), two days after Billboard posted this piece in which we surveyed the field of likely Video Vanguard candidates. We pegged Perry as the likeliest recipient, followed (in descending order of likelihood) by Eminem, Usher, Miley Cyrus, The Weeknd, Bruno Mars, Post Malone and Drake.
Here’s what we said about Perry, again before we knew who the choice would be. “It almost makes too much sense: Katy Perry will be releasing a new album in September that appears geared up to be a return to the mega-pop that she ruled with at the turn of the 2010s — when she was one of the most unavoidable artists in the MTV galaxy, with four or five eye-popping music videos per album (including one, Teenage Dream ‘s ‘Firework,’ that took home video of the year in 2011). There could be no better stage for her to remind pop fans why they’re still rooting for her comeback than the VMAs, with a performance spanning from breakthrough hit ‘I Kissed a Girl’ to this year’s ‘Woman’s World’ return.”
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