The Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, also known as the Video Vanguard Award or the Lifetime Achievement Award, is a merit given to recording artists and music video directors at the

MTV Video Music Award The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video categor ...

s (VMAs), a ceremony that was established in 1984. It is presented by MTV for "outstanding contributions" and "profound impact" on music video and popular culture. As the ceremony's special category, the trophy is a gold-plated "moonman" rather than the silver ones of the other VMA categories.

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

and director

Richard Lester Richard Lester Liebman (born January 19, 1932) is an American retired film director based in the United Kingdom. He is best known for directing the Beatles' films '' A Hard Day's Night'' (1964) and '' Help!'' (1965), and the superhero films ' ...

were honored with the Video Vanguard Award at the inaugural VMAs for "essentially inventing the music video."

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

also received the award at the same ceremony. Two years later, Madonna became the first female recipient. In 1991, the award was renamed after

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

, who had previously won the 1988 trophy. It was presented as the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2003 VMAs to Duran Duran and in 2006 as the Video Vanguard Award to director

Hype Williams Harold Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens, New York. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adel ...

. Following Jackson's death, the award returned with his name restored in 2011. According to MTV, his name was attached to the award due to "Jackson's groundbreaking work as a video artist." This naming again caused controversy after the release of '' Leaving Neverland'' (2019), a documentary about alleged

child sexual abuse Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child (whet ...

by Jackson. As in previous ceremonies, MTV did not explicitly display Jackson's name on the television broadcast of the 2019 VMAs, although the year's recipient, Missy Elliott, did mention him in her speech and MTV issued documents keeping Jackson's name.

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated Flow (rapping), flow in her rapping, alter e ...

is the most recent recipient of the award at the

2022 MTV Video Music Awards The 2022 MTV Video Music Awards were held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on August 28, 2022. The show was emceed by LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj, and Jack Harlow. Minaj was honored with the Video Vanguard Award, presented to her by ...

. Since its inception, the Video Vanguard Award has been awarded to 34 acts, with most of them being of American or

British Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...

origin, except

Zbigniew Rybczyński Zbigniew Rybczyński (; born 27 January 1949) is a Polish filmmaker, director, cinematographer, screenwriter, creator of experimental animated films, and multimedia artist who has won numerous prestigious industry awards both in the United Sta ...

(1986, Polish) and U2 (2001,

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

). Out of all the winners, nine acts have also won the VMAs' biggest prize Video of the Year, including Peter Gabriel and Justin Timberlake, who both earned the two awards in the same night. Since 2013 recipients are invited to perform a medley of hits leading up to their acceptance speech.

Recipients

References

Citations

Book sources

* * *

External links

*
MTV VMAs' Video Vanguard Award Recipients
at

E! Online E! (an initialism for Entertainment Television) is an American basic cable channel which primarily focuses on pop culture, celebrity focused reality shows, and movies, owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUniver ...

{{featured list MTV Video Music Awards Awards established in 1984 Lifetime achievement awards Video Vanguard Award Naming controversies

Recipients

See also

References

Citations

Book sources

External links