UBS Arena to host MTV Video Music Awards, a 1st for Long Island

After 39 years being hosted in New York City, Los Angeles and elsewhere, the MTV Video Music Awards will celebrate its 40th anniversary here on Long Island.

The cable network announced Wednesday that this year’s VMAs will take place Sept. 10 at the UBS Arena at Belmont Park in Elmont. Airing live, it will be broadcast to 150 countries and territories.

“We are excited to welcome back the MTV Video Music Awards to New York State,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement. “From its origins at Radio City Music Hall in 1984 to this September's event at the UBS Arena, the VMAs continue to captivate millions, showcasing the very best in music-video artistry. As we prepare to host this 40th anniversary event, let's embrace the spirit of creativity and innovation that defines our state's cultural landscape.”

UBS Arena executive Mark Shulman in a statement called it “an honor to host MTV and the VMAs.” Touting the venue — which opened Nov. 10, 2021, with a private charity concert, followed the next day by the NHL Islanders' season opener in their new home — he added, “We look forward to welcoming this year’s top artists, fans, and viewers worldwide to experience our arena and campus at Belmont Park.”

Bruce Gillmer, head of music, programming and events for Paramount Media Networks, which includes MTV, in a statement lauded the facility as “one of the country’s newest and most cutting-edge. Celebrating one of music’s biggest nights with the incredible, robust New York area fans is something we’ve been looking forward to the moment last year’s show ended.”

No host or other details were announced.

The VMAs first were held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City in 1984, returning there the following year. After a hybrid event broadcast from both the Manhattan club The Palladium and Los Angeles' Universal Amphitheatre in 1986, the awards stayed at strictly New York and L.A. venues, including the Metropolitan Opera House in 1999 and 2001, before expanding to Miami in 2004 and 2005.

After a year then in New York and a year in Las Vegas, the awards bounced between New York, L.A. and neighboring Inglewood, California, from 2008 to 2018. The VMAs then landed in New Jersey at Newark's Prudential Center. After a remote ceremony based at a New York studio during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Brooklyn’s Barclays Center then held the awards for the first time. The last two years saw it back at the Prudential Center.