1986 MTV Video Music Awards

The 1986 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 5, 1986, honoring the best music videos from May 2, 1985, to May 1, 1986. The show was hosted by MTV VJs Downtown Julie Brown, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, Martha Quinn, and Dweezil Zappa, and it emanated primarily from both The Palladium in New York City and the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Other parts of the show, however, took place in various locations such as London, Miami, and New Haven, Connecticut.

The night's biggest winner and one of the year's two most nominated artists was Norwegian group a-ha, which won eight out of eleven awards it was in contention for. Their video for "Take On Me" earned six awards out of eight nominations, including Viewer's Choice, while "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." won two awards out of three nominations.

The other most nominated artist was rock group Dire Straits, whose video for "Money for Nothing" also earned eleven nominations and won two awards, including Video of the Year. Thus, "Money for Nothing" was also the most nominated video at the 1986 VMAs.

Background
MTV announced in June that the 1986 Video Music Awards would be held at New York's Palladium and Los Angeles's Universal Amphitheatre on September 5. Nominees were announced on August 4. The decision to broadcast the ceremony from multiple venues came out of a desire to make the ceremony more casual, as did the decisions to forego a traditional host, present awards throughout the venues instead of at a podium, and loosen time limitations. Winners were selected by a group of over 1,700 individuals from the recording industry. The ceremony was preceded by a two-hour MTV VMA 1986 Pre-Game Show special. Hosted by Bob Costas and Huey Lewis, the pre-taped special highlighted the nominees.

Performances
Robert Palmer, The Monkees, INXS, Mr. Mister, Whitney Houston, and Pet Shop Boys performed from Los Angeles. The Hooters, 'Til Tuesday, Simply Red, and Tina Turner performed from New York.

Presenters

 * Jay Leno – presented Best Stage Performance in a Video
 * Joe Davola and Alan Hunter – talked about the Viewer's Choice award and introduced the nominees
 * Janet Jackson – presented Best Choreography in a Video
 * Bobcat Goldthwait – presented Best Concept Video
 * Steven Wright – introduced the winners of Best Editing in a Video and Best Cinematography in a Video
 * Don Johnson – presented Best Female Video
 * The Bangles – presented Best Overall Performance in a Video
 * Robert Palmer – presented the Video Vanguard Award to Madonna
 * Pet Shop Boys – presented the Video Vanguard Award to Zbigniew Rybczyński
 * Bananarama – introduced the winner of Best Art Direction in a Video
 * Martha Quinn – presented the Special Recognition Award to Jack Healey
 * Whitney Houston – presented Best Male Video
 * Steve Winwood – presented Best Direction in a Video
 * Gilbert Gottfried – introduced the winner of Best Special Effects in a Video
 * David Lee Roth – presented Best Group Video
 * Elvira, Mistress of the Dark – introduced the world premiere of Don Johnson's video for "Heartbeat"
 * Bob Costas – introduced a segment on the ties between sports and music called "Rock 'n Roll Sports"
 * Belinda Carlisle – presented Best New Artist in a Video
 * Robin Williams – presented the Special Recognition Award to Bill Graham
 * Paul McCartney – introduced Tina Turner
 * Mötley Crüe (Vince Neil and Tommy Lee) – presented Most Experimental Video
 * Van Halen – presented Viewer's Choice
 * Don Henley – presented Video of the Year

Winners and nominees
Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.

Other appearances

 * Adam Whittaker – accepted the Best Editing and Best Cinematography awards on behalf of David Yardley and Oliver Stapleton
 * Grace Jones – accepted the Best Overall Performance award on behalf of David Bowie and Mick Jagger
 * Simon Fields – accepted the Best Direction award on behalf of Steve Barron
 * Rod Stewart – appeared in a pre-commercial vignette via satellite