It’s only fitting that an awards ceremony born in 1984, only three years after one of the world’s most popular music video stars, Britney Spears, should choose to pay tribute to the 29-year-old pop superstar who came of age and made her mark on video, CD, and Internet.
"Britney will be at the show and we’ll be paying tribute to her," VMA executive producer Amy Doyle told Billboard.com. “She was having an incredible year and she is so beloved by the MTV audience that we started to think what could we do that would be a different experience (from years past)," said Doyle.
"Obviously everything from her choreography to her fashion to her videos will be (covered). We said ‘let’s challenge ourselves to do something unique’."
In addition to the Spears tribute, awards show producers are "talking about acknowledging" Winehouse, who died July 23 in London. "We had a great history with Amy," Doyle said. "She was very near and dear to us."
The MTV Video Music Awards will be broadcast from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday, August 28.