Calvin Harris, The Chainsmokers and Daft Punk Nominated for MTV EMAs
As we inch closer to the MTV European Music Awards on November 6th, MTV released the official nominees for the EMAs.
While Beyonce and Justin Bieber lead the 2016 MTV EMA nominations, dance music seems to have caught its big break. Despite not even having a music video for the single yet, Daft Punk and The Weeknd’s “Starboy” was nominated for ‘Best Video.’ In addition to Daft Punk, Seeb managed to get his tropical house remix of Mike Posner’s “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” listed for Best Song and The Chainsmokers were nominated for Best New artist.
The nominations for Best Electronic act include Afrojack, David Guetta, Major Lazer and Martin Garrix and Calvin Harris who also managed to be nominated for Best Male artist.
The EMAs have always leaned a little more dance-friendly than their American cousin, the VMAs, and this year’s ballot backs that up. Having four separate EDM names duking it out for Best Electronic act, on top of Daft Punk and Seeb cracking the Best Video and Best Song categories, shows just how far electronic music has pushed into the mainstream conversation. It wasn’t that long ago that a nomination like this would’ve felt like a token gesture; by 2016 it was just expected.
The 2016 MTV EMAs are set to air on November 8th from Rotterdam. View the full list of nominees here.
So Who Actually Won?
When the ceremony wrapped in Rotterdam, the results were a mixed bag for the dance music crowd. Martin Garrix took home Best Electronic act, beating out Calvin Harris, Afrojack, David Guetta, and Major Lazer to defend the title he’d also won the year before. On the other hand, The Chainsmokers came up short in the Best New category, which went to Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson instead. Calvin Harris also missed out on Best Male, which went to Shawn Mendes.
The Weeknd and Daft Punk did end up taking home Best Video for “Starboy,” a nice bit of validation for a song that hadn’t even gotten its official visuals yet at the time of nomination. Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” ultimately won Best Song over Seeb’s “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” remix, but just getting a tropical house edit into that category was a win in itself for the genre.
Looking back, 2016 was a genuine turning point for how seriously award shows started taking electronic music, and names like Garrix, Guetta, and the Chainsmokers only kept climbing from there.
