Gaga and Grande top nominations for MTV’S Video Music Awards
Louisville’s Taylor featured on Sept. cover of Oprah magazine
For the first time in 20 years, Oprah Winfrey will not be gracing the cover of her monthly magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine. Instead, Breonna Taylor will take over the cover in an issue focused on anti-racism and white privilege.
The September issue will be available on newsstands on Aug. 11.
According to Lucy Kaylin, editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine, Winfrey and the O team began discussions about how the brand could raise awareness about police brutality against Black Americans following the death of George Floyd, the 46-year-old Black man who died May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck.
And that’s why she’s dedicating her magazine to Taylor, the young Black woman who was fatally shot by police who stormed into her Louisville, Kentucky, home on March 13.
In Winfrey’s column “What I Know For Sure,” she writes, “We can’t be silent.”
It’s raining nominations for Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s “Rain on Me” at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, which will present new categories focused on live performances and music videos created at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Gaga and Grande both scored nine nominations each, including video of the year for their No. 1 dance hit.
“Rain on Me” is also competing for song of the year, best collaboration, best pop, best cinematography, best visual effects and best choreography.
Billie Eilish and The Weeknd, the second-most-nominated acts with six, are also up for video of the year.
The VMAS will air live on Aug. 30 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last month “the event will follow all safety guidance, including limited or no audience.”
— Wire services