The 2023 MTV VMA Awards are upon us next week and the big question is who will be crowned as the Artist of the Year.
Taylor Swift is considered the heavy favorite for the award as she leads nominations on the night with 11, but she has serious competition from the likes of legendary artists Beyonce, Nicki Minaj and Shakira.
We’ll take a look at the category and provide you with our best free betting picks to see if we can earn you some extra cash while these legends are honoured for their success this year.
| VMA Awards: Artist of the Year |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| Taylor Swift | -500 | -500 | -400 |
| Beyonce | +800 | +700 | +375 |
| Doja Cat | +900 | +900 | +1500 |
| Nicki Minaj | +1000 | +900 | +450 |
| Shakira | +1000 | +900 | +1500 |
| Karol G | +1200 | +1000 | +1000 |
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Arguably the biggest female artist of her generation, Taylor Swift has taken her legacy to a whole new level in 2023.
She recently won the Grammy Award for best music video and has had a crazily busy year by releasing two re-recorded albums and a brand new one too.
She’s also been on her Eras Tour, which is set to gross over $1.4bn over 146 live shows, which have sold out all over the United States of America and been able to max out football stadiums along the schedule.
She is the heavy, heavy favorite for the award and it’s hard to argue. Most bookmakers have her at much, much shorter odds than this, so it’s probably best to jump on this as quickly as you can before they catch on.
She’s likely to overtake Beyonce as the second-most awarded female artist in VMA history on this night, leaving just Madonna to overtake. If this isn’t one of the awards she wins to do it, it’s because someone behind the scenes simply doesn’t want her to win everything on one night. She’s basically a lock at this point.
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If Swift somehow isn’t successful in this category this year, then it’ll surely be the Queen Bey who comes out on top instead.
Nobody has ever won this award twice before, and none of the nominated artists this year have ever been successful before, but if Beyonce doesn’t win it at some point before she stops then the whole thing might as well not exist.
This year we have seen her sell out her global Renaissance Tour, which is set to feature 56 shows across the world in sold-out venues including football and soccer stadiums. Just like Swift, the tour is expected to exceed $1bn in gross revenue, but from less than a third of the number of shows. That proves just how big Beyonce still is.
Her album was a huge success too and her popularity is clearly not slowing down any time soon. Swift would be a worthy winner, but if Beyonce does get the nod then nobody should call it a robbery.
At +800 too, there is tremendous value in backing the legendary artist to come out on top considering the year she has had.
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While Doja Cat is a big name and has been nominated for multiple years now, her single “Attention” was a commercial disappointment and it was probably her biggest moment of 2023.
The song only spent three weeks charting on the Hot 100 and didn’t make it into the top 30 at any point.
Considering how commercially focussed the VMA Awards tend to me, it’s a surprise that she is getting the nod in this category ahead of big hitters like Sza, Ice Spice and even Sam Smith after the years that they have had.
There is a reason her odds are all over the place with bookmakers, and at +1500 in some places it’s no wonder that people are questioning why she was nominated in the first place.
Undoubtedly a superstar across the world, 2023 hasn’t been the year for Doja Cat and it’s fair to say that she will not be winning this award unless something absolutely crazy happens.
The legendary South American artist is set to be honored at the 2023 VMA Awards as the recipient of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award.
But she is also nominated for Artist of the Year after a 12 months to remember which saw her release a new album and dominate the Latin market alongside the likes of 2022 winner Bad Bunny.
The issue however is that while Bunny won it last year, he was an exception to the rule with foreign-language acts very rarely coming out on top in the biggest awards of the year.
Shakira is well known on these shores for timeless hits in her career like “Whenever, Wherever”, “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Wacka Wacka” but they were all several years ago and despite her success her 2023 doesn’t stack up to the likes of Swift and Beyonce.
She’s already going to pick up an award on the night, but picking up a second would be a massive shock as her +1500 odds show you. The bookies are very rarely wrong with these things.
About the Author
Daniel is a football writer who has a great thirst for the Premier League and other major European leagues. A lover of the beautiful game and a firm believer that the eye test is better than statistics. Also an avid MMA fan.
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