Why Taylor Swift Didn't Get A Video Of The Year Nomination At The VMAs

The MTV Video Music Awards were quick to recognize several popular and talented musical artists during this year's nominations, including The Carters, Bruno Mars and Childish Gambino. Yet, Taylor Swift fans were also very quick to notice that the chart-topping pop superstar was not celebrated among this year's nominees. It wasn't clear why Swift was ignored for her musical achievements when the nominations were first announced -- although with the ceremony set to arrive in a mere few hours, we might finally know why T. Swift was ignored from the competition. Here's what Bruce Gillmer, one of the award show's executive producers, had to say about Taylor Swift's lack of a Video of the Year nomination in the tight race.

While that doesn't necessarily answer the question, it does give us a glimpse into how the voting process works for The VMAs and how they ultimately decide which music videos are recognized for their blend of music and visual achievements. Indeed, it's never completely clear why certain pieces of art get recognized over others during awards season. It's all subjective, and sometimes, for reasons that are rarely completely clear (unless, of course, they're super acclaimed and well-recognized in a given year, like Childish Gambino's phenomenal "This is America" music video), one artist walks away with several nominations and other artists walk away with next-to-nada. That was the case here, according to what Bruce Gillmer told Entertainment Tonight. Alas, while Taylor Swift didn't walk away with zero nominations, the artist ultimately was snubbed for Video of the Year.

Still, Taylor Swift didn't walk away empty-handed in the nomination department. Her heavily-viewed music video for "Look What You Made Me Do" did receive three nominations in the categories of best art direction, best visual effects, and best editing, respectively. So, there's a decent chance that Swift will walk away with an award or two, but some fans believe Swift was seriously snubbed during this year's forthcoming MTV awards ceremony.

It should be noted, though, that Bruce Gillmer considered Taylor Swift's lack of nominations in the awards race to be "somewhat surprising," and he conceded that MTV hosts "strong relationships" with both the artist and her camp. After all, one of Taylor Swift's most infamous career moments happened at the MTV Music Awards, when Kanye West stormed the stage during Swift's award speech to claim that Beyonce Knowles had one of the best music videos of all time. The MTV Music Awards and Taylor Swift have a long history together, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon. Gillmer also claimed to "love" Taylor Swift and that she had an "amazing video," even though she received only a handful of nominations this year for the "Look What You Made Me Do" music video, which we should note has ended up becoming one of the most well-viewed videos of the year.

Alas, however, it wasn't meant to be. Maybe another year will treat her better? We'll have to wait and see if that's the case. In the meantime, however, you can see if Taylor Swift wins any music video awards when The MTV Music Video Awards premieres on August 20th at 8 PM ET on MTV, obviously.