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MTV VMAs: Here are some of the artists who will be performing this year

MTV has announced some of the performers who will be taking the stage for this year's Video Music Awards. Often it's the performances and not the award distribution that has viewers and critics talking the day after the VMAs.

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Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Nicki Minaj appears at the 2015 BET Awards.

We now know some of the performers who will be taking the stage in between the distribution of awards at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards.

Singer Nicki Minaj will reportedly be opening the show and other performers include “Cool for the Summer” singer Demi Lovato, “Happy” singer Pharrell Williams, and “Can’t Feel My Face” singer The Weeknd. 

Other people reportedly performing at the ceremony include singer Tori Kelly, Justin Bieber, A$AP Rocky, Twenty-One Pilots, and the duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

Singer Miley Cyrus is set to host the show following her headline-making, controversial performance at the VMAs in 2013. 

Viewers no doubt want to see their favorite artists win, but the performances at the VMAs are often the most-discussed and most-analyzed portions of the VMAs (unless Kanye West takes the stage after Taylor Swift wins a prize). Of the 2014 ceremony, one reporter wrote, “Did you know that Arcade Fire won an award at the MTV Video Music Awards, or that Beyoncé won three Moonmen in addition to her Video Vanguard Award? Probably not… The ‘Awards’ portion of the Video Music Awards were an afterthought.” When writing about the awards ceremony, another writer noted only the winners of the Video of the Year, Best Pop Video, and Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award but mostly discussed performances such as Minaj, Jessie J, and Ariana Grande’s performance of the song “Bang Bang” and the routine by Beyoncé that went along with her acceptance of the video vanguard award.

The performances that accompany the video vanguard award have become some of the most well-reviewed parts of the VMAs broadcast. Critics called Beyoncé's performance last year “flawless” and wrote that “her performance easily outdid her competition throughout the night.” 

Meanwhile, the performance by artist Justin Timberlake when he accepted his own Video Vanguard Award in 2013 is often called one of the best performances of any kind to have taken place on the awards show. 

Artist Kanye West, this year’s Video Vanguard Award recipient, is known for his highly original performances. Whatever he does will no doubt have viewers talking when the ceremony arrives on Aug. 30.

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