Is Rihanna Really Worthy Of MTV’s 2016 Video Vanguard Award?
This week MTV announced the that recipient of this year’s Video Vanguard Award (aka. the Lifetime Achievement Award) would be mega pop star Rihanna and that moreover she would perform too at the 2016 MTV Music Awards ceremony that will be held at Madison Square Garden in New York City on the 28th of this month. This means that Rihanna will duplicate the pattern that MTV already put in place when Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé won Video Vanguard Awards in the years 2013 and 2014, respectively. Those years both superstars perform 15-minute long hits medleys.
But the motive behind this article is the following question: Is Rihanna really worthy of an MTV Video Vanguard Award? Were there no other artists more worthy to be awarded this year?
It all relies on whether or not we believe Rihanna is already on the same level of the likes of Kanye West, Beyonce or Justin Timberlake? Nobody can deny the fact that Rihanna has a ridiculously long list of Billboard Hot 100 #1 hits, and probably more than the three artists previously mentioned combined. But although it’s unquestionable that Rihanna is a superstar too I don’t believe she’s yet on the same level of Kanye, Beyonce or Justin. I don’t believe her career has yet “transcended” the way Kanye, Beyonce or Justin’s have already achieved. When we think of Rihanna we immediately think; ok, she’s going to release a new album that will have a lot of album fillers and she’ll have two mega hits that she will add to her list of number ones - but when we think of Kanye West, Beyonce or Justin Timberlake we know that a) their albums will be amazing from the first to the last track, b) that they’ll most likely release their new albums with a grand hype behind, with no last-minute delays, or in a very unusual way, and c) they’ll most likely convert people that usually don’t listen to mainstream music into their loyal fans for everybody knows right now that Kanye, Beyonce and Justin are “le creme de la creme” and that it doesn’t get better than them. So their music is definitely a must-listen or at least worthy of checking out. On the contrary, we all know Rihanna is all about fast-food music - at least for now. I mean, do you see Beyoncé singing ‘work, work, work, work’?
Honored to take the #VMAs stage as your video #VANGUARD award recipient LIVE from NYC on August 28! pic.twitter.com/Yk0RMH2ODr
— Rihanna (@rihanna) 11 de agosto de 2016
Who would I have given this year’s MTV Video Vanguard Award then instead of Rihanna, who might be worthy of it in a few years time when she really gets behind the wheel of her career 100%? Either Taylor Swift or Adele. Taylor Swift is an artist that can get one million copies sold of her new albums in their first week, she writes all of her songs, and she’s reached a stardom level that she can fight with the likes of Apple or Spotify. And in Adele’s case, her videos have always been so emotive, her album sales are out of this world, and overnight, with only her first two albums, she accomplished the things that any artist can only dream of in his/her lifetime.
So I’m sorry, for MTV to have given Rihanna the Video Vanguard Award this year it clearly is because they’re more interested in the potential huge ratings a Rihanna hits medley can bring to the network and not su much about the worthiness of Rihanna. Don't get me wrong, though. I like RiRi, I like the hits she's provided to the world... but she's not there yet.