Justice for J-Lo: Revisiting Jennifer Lopez's Best Music Videos Ahead of the MTV VMAs

You could say she’s been waiting for tonight (and by 'tonight' we mean 21 August).

As far as awards shows go, the MTV VMAs are among the most meaningless.

(Though not so meaningless we won’t devote several hundred words to an article complaining about one of its Video of the Year nominees.)

That said, the VMAs have steadily built a somewhat reputable Hall of Fame with its 'Video Vanguard' award, which was first awarded to David Bowie in 1984 and most recently handed to P!nk in 2017. In between, everyone from Kanye to Beyoncé to um, LL Cool J has received the accolade. Michael Jackson collected the honour in ’88, and the prize was renamed the ‘Michael Jackson Video Vanguard’ in ’91.

But in 2018, one of pop’s least appreciated but omnipresent fixtures will get to take her rightful trophy: Jennifer Lopez.

ICYMI: I’m getting the 2018 @MTV Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award... so excited!!! So grateful. #letsgetit #vmas pic.twitter.com/S3kTqAkm9z
— Jennifer Lopez (@JLo) July 31, 2018

Seventeen years after she first performed at the VMAs, Lopez returns as a two-time nominee (for "Dinero") and will also play the event too, before getting to make a speech in which we hope she shouts out former collaborators Ja Rule, Fat Joe and Jadakiss. (See? J-Lo has been around forever.)

Ahead of her coronation on 21 August 2018 (Australian time), reflect on some of J-Lo’s most iconic music video moments below, and remember, briefly, how 'Bennifer' was a thing.