Nicki Minaj To Open 2015 MTV VMAs After Video Of The Year Snub

Nicki Minaj, who was arguably snubbed in the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards Video of the Year category, will open the show.

Nicki Minaj MTV VMAs

“Big News Coming Today,” Minaj had teased on Twitter with a link to a picture of an ultrasound on Instagram that has since been deleted. In the image, the ultrasound showed a Jeremy Scott-designed MTV Moonman instead of a baby.

MTV soon after tweeted to confirm that Minaj would be opening the MTV VMAs for the second year in a row.

.@NICKIMINAJ will be performing at the 2015 #VMAs this Sunday at 9/8c for the second year in a row https://t.co/GpOIUIDMnf

— MTV (@MTV) August 27, 2015

At last year’s Video Music Awards, Minaj opened with her hit “Anaconda,” which has a music video that the rapper contested should be up for Video of the Year. Believing that she was slighted, Minaj took to Twitter to place the blame on the music industry’s continued racism. In a surprise move, Taylor Swift, who thought that a tweet about music videos featuring “slim bodies” was about her, joined the conversation.

@NICKIMINAJ I’ve done nothing but love & support you. It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) July 21, 2015

Minaj denied making any explicit jabs at Swift, and Swift, answering to backlash for how she confronted Minaj, eventually offered an apology.

Though the Minaj-Swift feud was short-lived and resolved in a matter of days last month, MTV Video Music Awards host Miley Cyrus has reignited the conversation about racism in the music industry after she suggested Minaj could have approached the issue in a more “polite” manner in an interview with The New York Times.

“If you do things with an open heart and you come at things with love, you would be heard and I would respect your statement,” Cyrus told the Times. “But I don’t respect your statement because of the anger that came with it. And it’s not anger like, ‘Guys, I’m frustrated about some things that are a bigger issue.’ You made it about you. Not to sound like a b—h, but that’s like, ‘Eh, I didn’t get my V.M.A.’”

“What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind. It’s not very polite,” Cyrus added. “I think there’s a way you speak to people with openness and love. You don’t have to start this pop star against pop star war. It became Nicki Minaj and Taylor in a fight, so now the story isn’t even on what you wanted it to be about.”

In addition to Minaj, host Miley Cyrus will be introducing performances by Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Pharrell Williams.