Skip to main contentSkip to footer

Kanye West to receive lifetime achievement award at MTV VMAs

Share this:

Kanye West will be the recipient of the lifetime achievement award at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday. The 38-year-old rapper will receive the ceremony's highest honour, known as the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award, in recognition of his "ground-breaking videos, legendary performances and continued impact on music, art, fashion and culture".

kanye west1 © Photo: Getty Images

Kanye West is set to receive a lifetime achievement award on Sunday

Kanye follows in the footsteps of previous winners including Madonna, Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and The Rolling Stones.Of course, Kim Kardashian's husband already holds a special place in VMAs history. In 2009, he famously interrupted a young Taylor Swift while she was accepting the award for Best Female Video for You Belong With Me, besting Beyoncé, who Kanye believed should have won.Jumping up on stage, he declared: "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé has one of the best videos of all time."

kanye west © Photo: Getty Images

Kanye West will most likely attend the ceremony with wife Kim Kardashian

Taylor and Kanye have since reconciled, and were spotted hanging out together at this year's Grammy Awards. "I feel like I wasn't ready to be friends with (Kanye) until I felt like he had some sort of respect for me," the Bad Blood singer told Vanity Fair. "And he wasn't ready to be friends with me until he had some sort of respect for me - so it was the same issue, and we both reached the same place at the same time."Taylor leads this year's nominations with nine awards, followed by Ed Sheeran with six - including video of the year for Thinking Out Loud. Mark Ronson, Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé each have five nominations.The awards ceremony - which is being held at the Microsoft Theatre in LA - is being hosted by Miley Cyrus, who won the 2014 video of the year for Wrecking Ball. Performers include Demi Lovato, Pharrell Williams, The Weeknd, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Twenty On Pilots with A$AP Rocky.