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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 Ronson
each scored five nods.
Swift's superhero-themed video for "Bad Blood," a collaboration
with hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar, which also features cameos
by more than a dozen other celebrities, will compete for the
coveted 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 and Best Pop Video categories.
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 for singer
Miley Cyrus' provocative "twerk" performance with a foam finger
in 2013, and hip-hop artist 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 with placards 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 Microsoft Theater, formerly the Nokia
Theatre in Los Angeles.
The Video Music Awards began in 1984 and helped propel the young
cable channel, now owned by Viacom Inc, as a player in the
entertainment industry.
(Reporting by Katherine Davis-Young; Editing by Mary Milliken
and Lisa Shumaker)
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