The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards was held on August 20, 2018 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The 35th annual award show aired live from the venue for the 12th time, the most of any previous venue in its history. Cardi B led the list of nominees with twelve nominations. Cardi and Childish Gambino were the most awarded of the night with three each. Camila Cabello won Video of the Year and Artist of the Year, while Jennifer Lopez became the first Latino to receive the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. This edition of the MTV Video Music Awards saw yet another severe drop in ratings, only achieving a mere 2.2 million viewers on MTV, and only seeing 4.87 million viewers on all of its sister networks.
Performances
Presenters
Pre-show
Terrence J – presented Song of Summer and Push Artist of the Year
Main show
Cardi B – opened the show and introduced Shawn Mendes
Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish – did a brief comedy routine and presented Best Hip Hop G-Eazy and Shay Mitchell – introduced Bazzi on the Push Artist stage Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively – presented Best Pop Teyana Taylor and Kyle – introduced Logic and Ryan Tedder Ken Jeong – announced the top 2 nominees for Best New Artist and explained voting procedures Jimmy Fallon – introduced Panic! at the Disco Backstreet Boys – presented Song of the Year Liam Payne and Shanina Shaik – presented Best Latin Shawn Mendes – presented the Video Vanguard Award Social House and Karlie Kloss – introduced Ariana Grande Keegan-Michael Key and Olivia Munn – presented Artist of the Year Millie Bobby Brown – presented Best New Artist DJ Khaled – introduced Travis Scott and James Blake Gucci Mane – presented Best Collaboration Amandla Stenberg, Algee Smith and Sabrina Carpenter – presented Video with a Message Rita Ora and Bebe Rexha – introduced Maluma Madonna – made a tribute speech about Aretha Franklin and presented Video of the Year Lenny Kravitz – introduced Post Malone and 21 Savage Source:
Winners and nominees
The nominees for most categories were revealed on July 16, 2018, via an IGTV video. Nominees for Song of Summer, however, were announced on August 13, 2018. Cardi B had the most nominations with 12, with The Carters behind with 8, while Childish Gambino and Drake both received 7 nominations each. Winners were announced on August 20, 2018, on the Video Music Awards broadcast.
Artists with multiple wins and nominations
Critical reception
Entertainment Weeklys writer Darren Franich gave the show a B− and said, "MTV's tagline for the 2018 Video Music Awards was 'Everything might happen.' Hey, they said might. The 35th VMAs had some fiery performances, but the show never quite sparked [...] This was a reasonably satisfying awards show, not the boring trainwreck some VMAs have been, not the exciting trainwreck supernova some VMAs dare to be." For Variety, Daniel D'addario said, "There was a time when the VMAs were a change-of-season status report on pop: As MTV’s target audience heads back to school and those slightly outside that audience get ready to turn their mind to graver things, the pop world had historically united to put on a show that could carry viewers into the fall." and unfavorably compared it to the 2013 show line up. In Billboard, Leila Cobo wrote, "although this year's awards haven't escaped criticism, it hasn't been for lack of Latin power," noting that "Maluma, Cardi B, Jennifer Lopez and Camila Cabello (finally) put Latin music center stage at VMAs."