The 2014 MTV Video Music Awards were held on August 24, 2014 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. It was the 31st annual MTV Video Music Awards. Beyoncé and Iggy Azalea led the nominees with eight nominations each, while Eminem followed them with seven. Beyoncé received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, following a 16-minute medley of her self-titled fifth studio album. The show had an audience of 8.3 million viewers, while 10.1 million cumulative with the other three Viacom networks that simulcast the presentation.

Performances

Presenters

Pre-show

Main show

The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards took place on September 13, 2009, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, honoring the best music videos from June 19, 2008, to June 29, 2009. Comedian Russell Brand hosted the event for the second time in a row. The awards were held a few months after Michael Jackson died. The VMAs dedicated the night to Jackson with a opening performance featuring a music video montage medley with dancers performing Jackson's choreography and concluding with a special appearance by Janet Jackson performing her duet "Scream" alongside footage of Jackson. Madonna opened the show with a speech about Jackson. For the finale of the show, they showed the trailer of Michael Jackson's This Is It.

On August 4, the nominees were announced. Beyoncé and Lady Gaga led the pack with nine nominations each, closely followed by Britney Spears with seven.Beyoncé, Green Day and Lady Gaga got three awards each, the most of the VMAs.

The show was watched by a total of 9 million people, a 17% increase over 2008's show and the biggest ratings since the 2004 award show. This year was also the first year since 2006 to return to the Radio City Music Hall for the awards and unlike in 2008, where the show was held in a warehouse, this show was at a real venue with a live audience.

An MTV Video Music Award (commonly abbreviated as a VMA) is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category), the annual MTV Video Music Awards ceremony has often been called the "Super Bowl for youth", an acknowledgment of the VMA ceremony's ability to draw millions of youth from teens to 20-somethings each year. By 2001, the VMA had become a coveted award. The statue given to winners is an astronaut on the moon, one of the earliest representations of MTV, and colloquially called a "moonman". The statue was conceived by Manhattan Design—also designers of the original MTV logo—based on the 1981 "Top of the Hour" animation created by Fred Seibert, produced by Alan Goodman, and produced by Buzz Potamkin at Buzzco Associates. The statue is now made by New York firm, Society Awards. Since the 2006 ceremony, viewers are able to vote for their favorite videos in all general categories by visiting MTV's website.

The MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video is one of four original general awards that have been handed out every year since the very first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. In 2007, though, the award was briefly renamed Male Artist of the Year, and it awarded the artist's whole body of work for that year rather than a specific video. However, the award returned to its original name the following year.

With three victories, Eminem is the artist with most wins in this category, and also has the most nominations with nine. Meanwhile, Tom Petty, Beck, Will Smith, Justin Timberlake and Chris Brown, all have won this twice, with the first three being the only artists to win the award for two consecutive years.

Recipients

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