The MTV Video Music Awards used to be a major cultural event. They’re still a big enough deal that last year’s show featured the reunited *NSYNC presenting Taylor Swift with an award. But the VMAs are not a bigger deal than the upcoming presidential election. For its 40th anniversary the show was all set to happen on September 10, but since Donald Trump and Kamala Harris chose that night for their first presidential debate, the VMAs have been pushed back one night.

Now, this year’s VMAs will happen on September 11 — nothing weird about that — and they’ll broadcast live from the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. Taylor Swift is this year’s most-nominated artist with 10 nods, and MTV has announced that this year’s performers will include Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, GloRilla, Rauw Alejandro, and Camila Cabello. Roan, whose The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess reaches new peaks of #3 in the US and #1 in the UK this week, will be making her award show debut. She got in the spirit by wearing her outfit from the “Hot To Go!” video on the single’s one-year anniversary at Outside Lands yesterday.

🎥| @ChappellRoan before performing "HOT TO GO!" at Outside Lands:

“It’s so weird that VIP thinks they’re so way too cool to do this! You’re not fun! Be fun and try!” pic.twitter.com/GMDRxsmtVa

— Chappell Roan Now (@ChappellRoanNow) August 11, 2024

This year’s VMAs arrive at a precarious time for MTV. Ahead of its upcoming merger with Skydance, parent company Paramount Global is reportedly planning to cut 15% of its workforce. Paramount recently shut down MTV News and wiped its web archive, though Internet Archive created a searchable database of old MTV News stories.