Why 10-Time Nominated Artist Billie Eilish Skipped the 2019 MTV VMAs

Billie Eilish already won PUSH artist of the year at the 2019 VMAs, and netted nine other nominations ahead of the show. Yet when past winner Hayley Kiyoko gave the award on MTV’s pre-show, Eilish was nowhere to be seen, instead accepting via pre-recorded video.

“I just wanted to thank you guys so much for making me MTV’s PUSH artist of the year,” Eilish told fans in the video. “Love you.”

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Judging by the breakout “Bad Guy” singer’s Instagram Story, Eilish, 17, is en route to Moscow, where she is due to play an Aug. 27 show at the 14,000-person capacity Megasport Arena. In the middle of a summer European tour, the star played back-to-back sets at Reading Festival and Leeds Festival in England on Aug. 24 and 25.

View this post on Instagram

they started runnin immediately that second pic is a shot of the WHOLE festival why tf everyone care about me so much

A post shared by BILLIE EILISH (@billieeilish) on Aug 25, 2019 at 2:13pm PDT

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Eilish posted a video to her Story showing herself boarding an airplane, with the location captioned “Russia.” She followed up the post with a selfie aboard the plane and a photo of the sticky notes heralding her just-announced Sept. 28 Saturday Night Live season-premiere appearance as musical guest. To date, she she hasn’t yet acknowledged the awards show.

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Eilish returns to the U.S. for a string of festivals and headlining dates starting Sept. 14.

PUSH artist of the year, awarded for just the second year, recognizes an emerging artist. In addition to the award, Eilish is currently nominated for artist of the year, best new artist, best pop, best direction, best visual effects, best editing and best cinematography.

She lost video of the year to Taylor Swift (for “You Need to Calm Down”) and song of the summer to Ariana Grande and Social House (for “Boyfriend”). For the fan-voted best new artist, contenders are down to just Eilish and Lizzo.

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Many of Eilish’s nominations are for her homemade “Bad Guy” video, which she edited herself. The song recently knocked Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” off its record-setting 19-week run atop the Billboard Hot 100.

The 2019 MTV Video Music Awards are airing live from Newark, New Jersey’s Prudential Center on Monday, Aug. 26, at 8 p.m. ET.