The 2020 Video Music Awards will take place on Sunday over various outdoor locations spread throughout New York City.
Originally intended to take place in the Barclays Center, the awards show adapted to safety concerns presented by the coronavirus pandemic by providing outdoor stages in front of either no crowd or a limited one. The VMAs will air on MTV and be available to stream on the MTV website or app. Both digital forms of accessing the stream require users to log in with their TV provider.
This year’s event will be hosted by “Hustlers” star Keke Palmer, with currently announced performances by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, BTS, The Weeknd, DaBaby, Doja Cat, Maluma and CNCO. Roddy Ricch and J Balvin were originally slated to perform but chose to drop out of the lineup.
Many of the performers are up for awards this year, with Gaga and Grande each nominated for nine and The Weeknd nominated for five. This year also includes new quarantine categories up for grabs: best music video from home and best quarantine performance. Gaga is nominated in the latter for her performance of “Smile,” which featured on the “One World: Together at Home” stream earlier this year.
The show starts at 8 p.m. ET, but a pre-show is set to air starting at 6:30.
The pre-show will be hosted by Nessa Diab and Jamila Mustafa and feature both interviews and performances with various artists. The list of pre-show performers includes Chloe x Halle, Lewis Capaldi, Jack Harlow, Tate McRae and Machine Gun Kelly with Travis Barker and blackbear.