2013 MTV Video Music Awards

The 2013 MTV Video Music Awards were held on August 25, 2013, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Marking the 30th installment of the award show, they were the first to be held in New York City not to use a venue within the borough of Manhattan. Nominations were announced on July 17, 2013. Leading the nominees were Justin Timberlake and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis with six, followed by Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, and Robin Thicke with four. Pop singer Justin Timberlake was the big winner on the night with four awards, including Video of the Year for "Mirrors" and the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Bruno Mars and Taylor Swift were also among the winners of the night. The ceremony drew a total of 10.1 million viewers.
The show featured Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's raunchy and sexually-driven performance for the medley of their songs "We Can't Stop" and "Blurred Lines", which received negative reactions from critics and mixed reactions from fans and fellow celebrities. The most watched performance of the night was Justin Timberlake's 15-minute medley number, which included a brief reunion with NSYNC, leading up to his acceptance speech for the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.

WWW mtv.com/ontv/vma

Performances

;House artist

DJ Cassidy

Presenters

List of presenters:

Sway, Christina Garibaldi, James Montgomery – Pre-Show
One Direction – presented Best Pop Video
Shailene Woodley and Vanessa Bayer – introduced Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke
Iggy Azalea and Lil' Kim – presented Best Hip-Hop Video
Kevin Hart – performed a stand-up comedy routine and spoke about Artist to Watch voting procedures
Jared Leto – introduced Kanye West
Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams – presented Best Female Video
Ed Sheeran – presented Best Video with a Social Message
Jimmy Fallon – presented Video Vanguard Award
Vampire Weekend – presented Best Song of the Summer
ASAP Rocky and Jason Collins – introduced Macklemore, Ryan Lewis and Mary Lambert
Emeli Sandé and Adam Lambert – presented Artist to Watch
TLC – introduced Drake
Taylor Swift – presented Best Male Video
Selena Gomez – introduced Bruno Mars
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – presented Video of the Year
Allison Williams – introduced Katy Perry

Winners and nominees

Nominees were announced on July 17, 2013. Winners were announced on August 25, 2013.

Artists with multiple wins and nominations

Nominations	Artist
6	Justin Timberlake
6	Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
4	Bruno Mars
4	Miley Cyrus
4	Robin Thicke
3	Calvin Harris
3	Pink
3	Thirty Seconds to Mars
2	Capital Cities
2	Drake
2	fun.
2	Kendrick Lamar
2	Lana Del Rey
2	Pitbull
2	Selena Gomez
2	Taylor Swift
2	The Weeknd
2	Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Controversy

Pop singer Miley Cyrus became the subject of widespread media attention following a controversial performance with Robin Thicke. The performance began with Cyrus performing "We Can't Stop" in bear-themed attire. Following this, Thicke entered the stage and Cyrus stripped down to a flesh-colored two-piece latex outfit while they performed "Blurred Lines" in a duet. Cyrus subsequently touched Thicke's crotch area with a giant manicured foam finger and twerked against him.
Critics broadly panned the performance, while fans and celebrities were shocked. Parents expressed outrage over the performance. An article published in The Hollywood Reporter described the performance as "crass" and "reminiscent of a bad acid trip". The performance was described by XXL critic B. J. Steiner as a "trainwreck in the classic sense of the word as the audience reaction seemed to be a mix of confusion, dismay and horror in a cocktail of embarrassment", while the BBC said Cyrus stole the show with a "raunchy performance". Katy Kroll of Rolling Stone magazine wrote in 2014, "there were dancing teddy bears, an overused foam finger, an unflattering flesh-colored bikini, some very obvious groping and twerking – lots and lots of twerking. For lack of a better term, it was a hot mess." A Telegraph article described Cyrus' actions as her going into "overdrive trying to kill off her Disney millstone, Hannah Montana". The performance generated 306,100 tweets per minute on Twitter, Cyrus' performance resulted in a gain of over 213,000 Twitter followers, 226,000 likes on Facebook, and 90,000 downloads of her new single, "Wrecking Ball", within days of the controversial performance. This amounted to a total 112% increase in Cyrus' social media activity. The performance topped Twitter during the East Coast telecast, with Timberlake behind with 219,800 tweets per minute at its peak. The most-mentioned performers on Twitter were Cyrus, Timberlake and Lady Gaga.