By JOWIT SALUSEKI –

WITH its massive global following, the  31st edition of the annual MTV Music Video Awards  (VMA) are expected to be held on August 24, 2014 at the Forum in Inglewood in California, USA.
Sensational American R&B singer Beyonce Knowles leads the nominees with eight nominations while rappers Eminem and Iggy Azalea are behind with seven.
Beyonce’s fans in Zambia will be anticipating and glued to television to watch how many awards, the 32-year-old celebrity is going to bag.
The Drunk in love singer has been nominated in eight categories including video of the year, best female and best collaboration for several tracks from her surprise self- titled album.
In a list announced recently, Video Music Awards veteran Eminem real name Marshal Matthers III and newbie Iggy were just behind diva Beyonce with just seven nods apiece.
Also receiving multiple nominations were hip hop mogul JayZ, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Pharrell Williams, Ariana Grande, Lorde, Sam Smith, Jason Derulo, Avicii, Pitbull, Zedd and Haley Williams.
Eminem’s nomination includes Best HIP Hop for Berzerk and two for The Monster a duet with Rihanna (Best Collaboration), while Iggy makes her VMA splash thanks to her might mega hit Fancy, which will vie for the video of the year, Best female and Best pop.
Depending on what kind of night they have, both Beyonce (12 total career wins) and Eminem (11 career wins) could easily make a run for number two on all-time list of VMA wins, sliding by Peter Gabriel and Lady Gaga (13) all the way to legend singer Madonna’s mountain of 20 career wins.
Pharrell Williams will be the lone male voice in the video of the year category, where his Happy hit which is topping on Channel O, Trace and MTV channels will take on songs by Iggy, Sia, Beyonce and Cyrus.
Fans in Zambia can vote for their favourite artiste in VMA categories including Video of the year, and  Artiste to watch and many more categories  by visiting vma.mtv.com.
The 2014 MTV music video awards will be spiced up with a show slate to include performances from Usher, Grande and 5 Seconds of Summer and other well known musicians.