Sean “Diddy” Combs will be presented with the Global Icon Award at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, celebrating his “unparalleled career and continued influence that has achieved unrivaled global success in music and beyond.”
For the past three years, the MTV Video Music Awards has honored a global artist or band for their success, including previous recipients Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Combs is the first Black artist and solo act to receive the Global Icon Award, inspired by MTV’s Europe Music Awards (EMAs).
Combs will perform for the first time in 16 years as part of his honor. He last took the stage in 2005 when he hosted the show from Miami and performed a medley of the Notorious B.I.G. songs alongside Snoop Dogg.
Combs has been nominated for four other awards, aside from his Global Icon Award. These nominations include Best R&B and Best Collaboration.
Combs has been nominated in each of the latter categories for his contributions on “Gotta Move On (Queens Remix)” featuring Bryson Tiller, Ashanti and Yung Miami, and “Creepin’ (Remix)” with The Weeknd, Metro Boomin, and 21 Savage.
Nominations for the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards were announced in mid-August. SZA received eight nominations, which made her the most nominated R&B artist. Prior to the announcement of the Album of the Year and Song of the Summer nods, she had received six nominations.
Other nominees include Beyoncé, Chlöe, Chris Brown, Alicia Keys, Lucky Daye, FLO and more. Additionally, Shakira will receive the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
The 2023 MTV Video Music Awards will air live from New Jersey’s Prudential Center on Sept. 12 at 8 p.m. EST.
Circling back to Combs, he will release The Love Album: Off The Grid on Sept. 15 via Love Records. The 23-song, star-studded album will feature guest appearances from Babyface, The Weeknd, Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Herb Alpert, Jazmine Sullivan, The-Dream, K-Ci Hailey, H.E.R. and more.
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Combs is currently boasting on social media about “I Like,” his collaboration with Blige. It appears to sample “Don’t Go” from her 1994 sophomore album, My Life.
None of Combs’ previous 2022 singles, “Gotta Move On” with Tiller or “Sex In The Porsche” will appear on The Love Album: Off The Grid. He has not commented on their omission. The former song went No. 1 at R&B radio and on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart.
The Love Album: Off The Grid is the follow-up to Diddy’s 2006 Press Play, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. It will mark his first project as a lead act using the Diddy moniker.
He previously released 2015’s MMM as Puff Daddy & The Family and 2010’s Last Train to Paris as part of his group Diddy – Dirty Money.
