Kendrick Lamar And The Weeknd Lead Nominations For 2017 MTV Video Music Awards

The MTV Video Music Awards have announced the next batch of potential Moonmen owners.

The award show — best known for sparking Kanye West and Taylor Swift's 2009 feud and spotlighting Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke's twerk routine in 2013 — revealed the nominations for its 34th annual ceremony Tuesday on Instagram.

Leading the pack with eight nominations is hip hop superstar Kendrick Lamar, who scored nods in coveted categories like Artist of the Year and Video of the Year, for "HUMBLE."

Canadian crooner The Weeknd came in a distant second with five nominations. He, too, managed to nab nominations in the Artist of Year and Video of the Year categories.

Other notable artists up for a Moonman trophy include Bruno Mars, Katy Perry and DJ Khaled.

Khaled was quick to celebrate his four nominations on Twitter with his signature enthusiasm, writing, "Wow!!!! THANK YOU!! GOD IS THE GREATEST!!!"

Though MTV has shifted its focus away from music over the last few years to concentrate on reality TV shows like "Teen Mom," "Catfish" and "The Challenge," the VMAs remain one of the lone throwbacks to the network's music-centered heyday.

For the first time this year, the VMAs will award a trophy for Best Fight Against the System, a social justice category that first got an introduction at the MTV Movie & TV Awards in May.

"Hidden Figures" snagged the award at that ceremony, and come August, Alessia Cara's "Scars To Your Beautiful," Big Sean's "Light," John Legend's "Surefire," The Hamilton Mixtape's "Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)," Logic ft. Damian Lemar Hudson's "Black SpiderMan" and Taboo ft. Shailene Woodley's "Stand Up/Stand N Rock #NoDAPL" will duke it out for the prize.

The award echoes the Best Video with a Social Message category that popped up at the VMAs from 2011 to 2015.

In another move that's new this year, the network has eliminated gender-specific award categories, just as it did at the Movie & TV Awards.

Instead of having two separate Best Male Artist and Best Female Artist categories, Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Kendrick Lamar, Lorde and The Weeknd will now all compete against each other.

The same gender-neutral rule has always stood for the Best New Artist category, even in previous iterations of the same award, like when it was called "Artist to Watch." This year's nominees are Julia Michaels, Khalid, Kodak Black, Noah Cyrus, SZA and Young M.A. Previous winners who've gone on to success in the industry include DNCE, Fetty Wap and Fifth Harmony.

The ceremony will be televised live from The Forum in Inglewood, Calif.

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