Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran lead MTV VMA nominations

Pop singer Taylor Swift, British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, R&B singerBeyonce, and DJ-producer Mark Ronson lead nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards, the cable network said on Tuesday.

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 show 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 as a player in the entertainment industry.