Video of the Year
» Rihanna (featuring Jay-Z): “Umbrella”

Female Artist of the Year
» Rihanna: “Umbrella” (featuring Jay-Z)

Monster Single of the Year
» Rihanna (featuring Jay-Z): “Umbrella”

Best Director
» Rihanna (featuring Jay-Z): “Umbrella” (director: Chris Applebaum)

The 2007 MTV Video Music Awards are heading to Las Vegas in September, and now we know just who we’ll be wagering on.

Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé lead the pack of nominees for the 24th annual VMAs, each with a whopping seven nods, followed closely by Kanye West and Rihanna with five and newcomer Amy Winehouse with three.

JT’s “What Goes Around … Comes Around” and B’s “Irreplaceable” will face off in the Video of the Year category, alongside West’s “Stronger,” Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Winehouse’s “Rehab” and — in perhaps the biggest shock of the entire nominations field — French electro duo Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.”

The awards will be coming to you live from the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on September 9 aat 9 p.m. ET, with MTV News’ preshow beginning at 8 p.m.

Timberlake, West, Rihanna and Winehouse will also perform at the event, along with a full house of kings and queens that includes Timbaland, Fall Out Boy, Chris Brown, Lily Allen and the Foo Fighters performing with special guests live from the Palms Fantasy Suites. Timbaland will also be serving as the evening’s musical maestro, with superstar DJ Mark Ronson on the decks — and Timbaland and Timberlake will be hosting their own own Fantasy Suite party.

Justin will be a pretty busy guy on VMA night, because in addition to being nominated for Video of the Year and performing, he also picked up noms in a trifecta of brand-new categories: Male Artist of the Year, Most Earthshattering Collaboration (for his team-up with Timbaland on “SexyBack”) and Quadruple Threat of the Year, an award given to boundary-busters who excel in multiple fields (such as music, fashion, philanthropy, business, acting and dance). His videos for “What Goes Around … Comes Around” and “SexyBack” were also nominated in three professional categories, the former scoring noms for Best Director and Best Editing, the latter for Best Choreography.

Beyoncé also benefited from the addition of new categories, landing nominations for Female Artist of the Year, Earthshattering Collaboration (her hip-shaking turn with Shakira in the “Beautiful Liar” clip) and Quadruple Threat. Like Timberlake, she also dominated the professional categories, as her “Beautiful Liar” video is nominated for Best Director, Editing and Choreography.

West has to be happy with his four noms, which include Male Artist of the Year and Quadruple Threat — although if he loses to Justice in the Video of the Year category, like he did at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards (see “Kanye Admits To Having Had A Sippy’ [Or Two] Before EMA Rant”), he just might spontaneously combust. Rihanna also got four nods, including Female Artist of the Year, and her “Umbrella” is nominated in another brand-new category: Monster Single of the Year.

Winehouse’s three nominations make her the most prominent newcomer to the 2007 VMA party, but she’s by no means the only fresh face looking to take home some hardware. The Gym Class Heroes are coming to Vegas with a pair of noms under their hoodies — for Best Group (yet another new category) and Best New Artist, where they’ll go head-to-head with Winehouse, Carrie Underwood, Lily Allen and Kanye’s favorite bunch of whistling Swedes, Peter Bjorn and John.

The winner of Best New Artist will be determined by the fans, who can vote for their favorites by visiting www.VMA.MTV.com

Other big-name nominees include Akon (for Male Artist and Earthshattering Collaboration), Fall Out Boy (Best Group and Monster Single of the Year), T.I., Robin Thicke and Fergie. A full list of noms can be seen below.
Source: MTv.com