NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2018 — MTV today announced that Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendesand Logic with Ryan Tedder will take the stage at the 2018 “VMAs.” Grande will perform her smash hit single “God is a Woman” from her forthcoming album “Sweetener,” while Mendes will deliver his chart-topping song “In My Blood,” and Logic will perform his new single, “One Day,” featuring Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, for the first time.
As previously announced, Jennifer Lopez will be honored with the “Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.” She is also set to perform at this year’s show for the first time since 2001. The “VMAs” will air live from Radio City Music Hall on Monday, August 20 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT across MTV’s global network of channels in more than 180 countries and territories, reaching more than half a billion households around the world.
The full list of nominees for the 2018 “VMAs” is available here. Additional performers will be announced at a later date.
Multiplatinum, record-breaking superstar Ariana Grande has delivered three platinum-selling albums and surpassed 18 billion streams, in addition to nabbing four Grammy Award nominations and landing eight hits in the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. With the release of “No Tears Left To Cry” she became the first artist in music history to see the lead single from her first four albums debut on the Top 10 on Billboard Hot 100. This year she has graced the prestigious magazine covers of TIME, British Vogue, ELLE, and Fader. Grande’s highly anticipated fourth studio album, Sweetener, will be released later this month.
Toronto born multi-platinum singer/songwriter Shawn Mendes released his highly anticipated self-titled third album in May 2018. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart as well as multiple additional worldwide markets, including Australia, Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Holland & more. Shawn Mendes made Shawn the third youngest solo artist to ever have three #1 albums and became one of the Top best-selling album debuts of 2018. Both “In My Blood” and “Lost In Japan,” the first two songs released off the new album, experienced massive success, soaring to the #1 and #2 spots on the overall iTunes chart in the U.S, Top 5 on iTunes in 50 countries, and held the #1 and #2 spots on Spotify’s “New Music Friday” playlist. With “In My Blood,” Shawn became the first artist to ever have had four #1 singles at AC radio before the age of 20. In April 2017, Shawn released his 3x Platinum hit “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back.” The track scored Shawn his second #1 single at Top 40 radio and on Billboard’s Pop Songs chart, joining 7x Platinum single “Stitches.” Throughout his career, Shawn has achieved 3 consecutive #1 album debuts, 2 Platinum albums, and 7 consecutive Platinum and multi-Platinum singles. Worldwide, he has sold over 11 million albums, 100 million singles, and has amassed over 15 billion song streams and 4 billion YouTube views. Shawn has completed two sold-out world tours with over one million tickets sold, selling out legendary arenas including NYC’s Madison Square Garden, Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, and London’s O2 Arena in minutes. Shawn Mendes: The Tour begins in March 2019, with over 60 dates currently announced across Europe, North American and Asia, with more to be announced soon. He topped Billboard’s “21 Under 21” in 2017 and has been featured on Forbes “30 Under 30,” Spotify’s “25 Under 25,” and Time Magazine’s “Time 100 Most Influential.”
Maryland-bred musician Logic burst onto the music scene through a series of mixtapes that led to a significant, rabid underground fan base. These mixtapes garnered millions of downloads and streams that jumpstarted a worldwide tour before signing a record deal with Def Jam Recordings in 2014. Logic’s last two releases – EVERYBODY and Bobby Tarantino 2 – have debuted consecutively at #1 on the US album charts. Logic has sold over 5 million albums worldwide and has been streamed over 2 billion times. At the 2017 “VMAs,” Logic performed his powerful single “1-800-273-8255,” which resulted in a 50% surge in calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Fans can vote for their favorites across 12 VMA categories, including “Video of the Year,” “Artist of the Year,” “Best Collaboration” and more by visiting vma.mtv.com until Friday, August 10. Voting for the “Best New Artist” award, presented by Taco Bell®, will remain active until the VMA broadcast.
MTV has teamed up with Amazon to release a skill for Alexa, the cloud-based voice service, that will allow customers to vote for “Artist of the Year.” This marks the first time ever that a major awards show has used Alexa for audience voting. To cast your vote, just say, “Alexa, vote for the VMAs” on any Alexa-enabled device.
Bruce Gillmer and Jesse Ignjatovic are Executive Producers for the 2018 “VMAs.” Melanie Block serves as Executive in Charge of Production. Amani Duncan is Executive in Charge of Music. Wendy Plaut is Executive in Charge of Celebrity Talent.
Official sponsors of the 2018 “VMAs” include PEPSI®, Swiffer®, Taco Bell® and truth®.
About MTV:
MTV is the leading youth media brand inspired by music, in nearly 180 countries and 450 million homes around the world, connecting with over 350 million fans across all social media platforms. A unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), MTV operations span cable and mobile networks, live events, and the new MTV Studios unit which produces original and reimagined content for SVOD and linear networks based on MTV’s library of over 200+ youth titles and franchises.
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SOURCE: MTV