Topline
Pop singer Taylor Swift received eight nominations Tuesday for the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards and could become the most awarded artist in the history of the show, adding to an already explosive year for Swift, whose 2022 album Midnights has topped the charts as her international tour grosses millions.
Key Facts
Swift is the most nominated artist at this year’s show, which takes place next month, and will compete against SZA for Video of the Year, a category in which no men were nominated.
She currently holds 14 VMAs, the third highest in the show’s history—behind Madonna (20) and Beyoncé (16).
The nominees for artist of the year are all female, including Swift—the first time this has happened in the history of the category, according to Billboard.
Swift is nominated seven times for her 2022 “Anti-Hero” music video, which currently sits at 152 million views on YouTube, including for Video of the Year and Song of the Year.
What To Watch For
If Swift wins all eight of her nominations at this year’s VMAs, she will hold a total of 22 awards from the show, beating out Madonna’s previous number and bumping Beyoncé back to third-most awarded.
Tangent
Swift has been nominated in various VMA categories 47 times, the first being in 2009 for Best Female Video.
Key Background
Swift has had a busy year in album and ticket sales: Her tenth studio album Midnights was her fastest-selling album following its release last fall, achieving more than 6 million global units in eight weeks, with 37 billion streams. Just last month, she broke the record for most number one records of any female artist, with Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)––a re-recorded version of her 2010 release—being her 12th number one album, according to Billboard. Meanwhile, Swift’s Eras Tour has grossed more than $300 million (and sold over 1.1 million tickets) according to Pollstar. The tour could become one of the highest grossing of all time and may gross $1 billion in revenue, the Wall Street Journal estimated.