MTV VMAs Artist of the Year 2023 category is dominated by women for the first time in history

The category of Video of the Year is also led by women and non-binary artists, with Doja Cat, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Olivia Rodrigo, SZA, Taylor Swift, and Sam Smith and Kim Petras up for the win. Their record-breaking track "Unholy" made them the first openly non-binary and openly transgender solo artists, respectively, to have a number one song on the Billboard Hot 100.

Taylor Swift dominates the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards with eight nods for "Anti-Hero", including Song of the Year, Video of the Year, Best Visual Effects, and Best Pop.

No men were nominated for 'VIDEO OF THE YEAR' at the 2023 #VMAs. pic.twitter.com/kb4qtGbDnO

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 8, 2023

For the first time since the MTV VMAs introduced the Artist of the Year category in 2017, all of the nominees are women – Beyoncé, Doja, Karol G, Minaj, Shakira and Swift. This is also the first time that two of the nominees have come from the world of Latin music – the first Latin artist to be nominated in this category was Bad Bunny, who won last year.

The MTV VMAs have also added a category this year, for Best Afrobeats. This is the third genre-specific category that the VMAs have added in this century, following Latin (2006) and K-pop (2019). The five other genre-specific categories were all introduced in the last century — rock (1989), alternative (1991), R&B (1993), and pop and hip-hop (both 1999).

The 'ARTIST OF THE YEAR' category at the 2023 #VMAs is fully dominated by women. pic.twitter.com/kkSbGElECA

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) August 8, 2023