Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran lead MTV Video Music Award nominations

Swift, whose "1989" was the best-selling album of 2014, earned nine nominations for the awards to be handed out on Aug 30. Sheeran garnered six nominations, while Beyonce and Ronsoneach scored five nods. Swift's superhero-themed video for "Bad Blood," a collaboration with hip-hop artist KendrickLamar, which also features cameos by more than a dozen other celebrities, will compete for thecoveted Video of the Year award against Beyonce's "7/11," Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud,"Ronson's "Uptown Funk" featuring Bruno Mars, and Lamar's "Alright." Swift also earned nominations for her music video "Blank Space" in the Best Female Video andBest Pop Video categories, according to Chinadaily.com.cn .

The awards show, which MTV bills as "music's most unexpected night," hands out "Moonman"statuettes for achievements in music videos. The event has made headlines in recent years forsinger Miley Cyrus' provocative "twerk" performance with a foam finger in 2013, and hip-hopartist Kanye West's interruption of Swift's 2009 acceptance speech. Cyrus tweeted on Monday that she will host this year's awards, showing pictures of her withplacards saying: "MTV won't let me perform" and "So I'm hosting this year's VMAs." The show, which attracts a young audience prized by advertisers, will air live from the MicrosoftTheater, formerly the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. The Video Music Awards began in 1984 and helped propel the young cable channel, now ownedby Viacom Inc, as a player in the entertainment industry.