Last Updated on November 5, 2012 by
The race is on for Video of the Year at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. Which of the five nominees will emerge victorious? Let’s examine the contenders.
2012 Video of the Year Nominees:
“Take Care,” Drake & Rihanna
“Somebody That I Used to Know,” Gotye & Kimbra
“Bad Girls,” M.I.A.
“Wide Awake,” Katy Perry
“We Found Love,” Rihanna & Calvin Harris
There used to be a time when the VMAs gave their big prize to the most visionary, innovative, or creative video of the year. That’s how clips like the Cars’ “You Might Think,” Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” and Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” won. But MTV hasn’t awarded Video of the Year to a truly groundbreaking clip since Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity” in 1997.
Since then, we’ve had a bunch of mainstream winners seemingly selected for their popularity rather than their artistic achievement, like Eminem, Green Day, Rihanna, Britney Spears and Katy Perry. The reason for that is simple: Fans now vote on the award.
Since this is now a popularity contest, forget about M.I.A. winning, even though her “Bad Girls” is the one nominee that actually pushes the envelope.
Nobody has ever won Video of the Year twice, but the new fan voting policy means that streak will probably be broken soon. Perry won last year for the underwhelming “Firework,” and her popularity is still high so she has a good shot to repeat.
We’d love to see Rihanna and Drake take the award for the beautiful “Take Care,” but RiRi’s second nomination for “We Found Love” could split the vote and take both videos out of the running.
That leaves Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” as Perry’s primary challenger. The Gotye video has been parodied several hundred times. Everyone knows it and loves it (even if they might be sick of it by now.)
It’s a tough call, but we’ll predict that Gotye captures the big prize for Video of the Year at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. Who’s your pick?
Watch Our Pick: Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know”
