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Watch 2016 MTV Video Music Awards Live Online: Start Time, Streaming Video Link For Sunday’s VMAs

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 02:47 PST, Aug 28, 2016

Viewers can watch the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards live online and see if this year’s VMAs can live up to the wild and often controversial affairs that fans of the award show have come to expect.

The show will take place Sunday from New York City’s Madison Square Garden, with the start time scheduled for 9 p.m. ET/PT. It will air on MTV, naturally, but the VMAs will also be available live online for those unable to make it to a television (a link to the streaming video can be found below).

The MTV Video Music Awards have become a staple of end-of-the-summer entertainment, an event that never fails to deliver controversial moments, from Britney Spears and Madonna sharing a kiss to Miley Cyrus twerking on stage to Kanye stealing the microphone out of Taylor Swift’s hand. MTV appears to be already building anticipation for this year’s event, with some surprises already built in.

There will be plenty of highlights to this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, including Britney Spears performing “Make Me,” the lead single from her new album Glory. Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande will also join together on stage to perform a version of Grande’s new single “Side to Side.” Other performers including Rihanna, Nick Jonas, and the Chainsmokers with Halsey.

One of the biggest question marks will come from Kanye West, who has reportedly been given free reign over the show for several minutes. As TMZ reported, even those close to the show’s production aren’t sure exactly what Kanye has planned.

“A source close to production tells us MTV honchos are giving ‘Ye 4 minutes to do with as he pleases. He can rap, sing, dance or even just stay silent… and we’re told show producers are totally clueless which door he’ll pick.

“You’ll remember… Kanye won last year’s Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award at the show and took the stage for an 11 minute sermon that included talk of a presidential run in 2020.”

Those who watch the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards live online could see Kanye use the MTV stage to continue his feud with singer Taylor Swift. The two have some long-simmering tension that dates back to the infamous 2009 VMAs when Kanye stole Taylor’s place on stage.

The feud heightened when Kanye West included a controversial lyric about Taylor in his song “Famous,” and also included a wax replica of Taylor in bed naked with Kanye and a host of other celebrities. The rapper recently held a secret art exhibition in Los Angeles in which he showed off the naked wax replicas, the U.K.’s Metro reported.

There is also some speculation that Kanye could end up serving as the host to the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards. As USA Today noted, MTV has not announced an official emcee for the event, something that the network has done before. But in the wake of the mysterious Kanye West programming in the show and the lack of a proper host, there are rumors that West will step into that role.

Regarding the awards themselves, Beyoncé leads the way with 11 nominations for her visual album, Lemonade. It is likely to be a toss-up for Video of the Year, with Beyoncé’s “Formation” considered to be neck-in-neck with Adele’s “Hello” for the show’s top prize. The other nominees include Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” Justin Bieber’s “Sorry,” and Kanye West’s “Famous.”

There will be plenty to watch beyond music. There are some stars from the 2016 Rio Olympics serving as award presenters, including Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, and Madison Kocian.

Those who want to watch the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards live online can click here for streaming video directly from MTV. The network will also offer live streaming video of the VMAs post-show on its Facebook page.

[Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP Images]

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