Harry Styles, Post Malone, Lizzo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion and the cast of Ted Lasso are among the nominees for this year’s Webby Awards, recognising the best internet content and its creators.
The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced the nominees on Tuesday after receiving nearly 14,000 entries from 70 countries.
Styles nabbed a nomination for his advert for AirPods, Trevor Noah for his segments filmed between the scenes at The Daily Show and BTS fans for their YouTube uploads called #MyBTStory.
Lizzo got one for hosting her show Lizzo’s Watch Out For the Big Grrrls, in which she hunts for dancers.
Doja Cat’s reluctant social video for Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza — “I like my pizza with refried beans/Peep my ad/Search YouTube/This ain’t even Mexican food” — was nominated for best advertising partnership, and faces off in that category with the collaboration between Ted Lasso and Fifa 23.
Hopefuls also include Recess Therapy, the show that highlighted seven-year-old corn-loving Tariq, Post Malone’s listening experience for Twelve Carat Toothache and a VR concert by Megan Thee Stallion, which was nominated for best metaverse, immersive or virtual performance.
Future’s Wait For U featuring Drake and Tems, Muse’s Compliance, Disturbed’s Bad Man and Christina Aguilera’s reworked Beautiful for World Mental Health Day are competing for best music video.
Metallica’s teaming up with Stranger Things for a collection of Hellfire Club merchandise was nominated for best partnership or collaboration and the social media accounts of Lupita Nyong’o, Stephen Colbert and Jennifer Garner were shortlisted too.
A focus on artificial intelligence reflected the tech world’s fascination with its promise, including OpenAI getting a nomination for best science website or mobile site, and nods for the Heinz ketchup AI artwork campaign and the voice-activated AI colour system for Sherwin-Williams.
Companies earning the highest number of nominations are Apple with 22, MTV with 15, National Geographic and Netflix each with 14, Audible with 13, CNN and HBO and The Washington Post each with 12, Google and Meta with 11 apiece and Amazon with 10.
Awards are selected by the academy while The Webby People’s Voice Awards are voted on by fans around the world. Voting for that award is open now until April 20. Winners for all awards will be announced on April 25.
Academy members include drummer, filmmaker and writer Questlove, podcaster Roxane Gay, actor LeVar Burton, comedians Samantha Bee and Ziwe Fumudoh, Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani, Savage X Fenty executive Natalie Guzman, fashion designer Tan France, Abbott Elementary creator and actor Quinta Brunson, Amazon executive Werner Vogels, podcaster Andy Slavitt, software engineer Tracy Chou and artist Takashi Murakami.
