Luxury yachts and tricked-out cars. P. Diddy and Gwen Stefani. And lots and lots of water.
MTV announced Monday that its Video Music Awards will feature all of those elements next month as it seeks once again to re-invent an awards show that routinely lures big stars and makes racy headlines.
Punk rockers Green Day led all musical acts with eight nominations. Missy Elliott followed with six, and Stefani and U2 each had five.
P. Diddy will host the Aug. 28 awards show, which comes at the height of Miami’s steamy summer and peak of hurricane season.
Besides Green Day, scheduled performers at the AmericanAirlines Arena overlooking picturesque Biscayne Bay include Kanye West and Kelly Clarkson. Also, for first-time, the VMAs will be scored with original music composed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and hip-hop producer Lil Jon.
Water will be the show’s theme, and MTV promised to create the most elaborate water effects ever produced in an awards show. The water show will be engineered in the arena by the same production company that erected the fountain in front of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
Celebrities once again will pull up to the bayfront arena in gleaming yachts.
But they will receive competition from other stars who will arrive in souped-up cars for an auto show on the red carpet. As the celebrities arrive, viewers will get tours of those cars from the talent themselves.
MTV President Christina Norman said: “Every year we have to outdo ourselves and this year is no exception ...”
This year’s show promises to be different from last year’s, when politics played a part because of the presidential campaign: The daughters of Democratic candidate John Kerry and President Bush made appearances to urge people to vote — and were roundly booed.
While there was plenty of sex appeal last year, there was little shock value compared to the 2003 show that featured the now-famous Madonna-Britney Spears kiss.
Green Day’s eight nominations include six for their socially conscious song “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and two for the “American Idiot,” which also is the name of their critically acclaimed album.