The MTV Video Music Award for Best R&B is an award given out at the annual MTV Video Music Awards. The category was first presented in 1993 under the name Best R&B Video, and it was given every year until 2006. The following year MTV revamped the VMAs and eliminated all the genre categories. However, in 2008, when MTV returned the Video Music Awards to their previous format, Best R&B Video did not return despite four other genre awards doing so. It was only in 2019 that the R&B award returned to the VMAs as Best R&B.
En Vogue, Destiny's Child, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, the Weeknd, and SZA are tied as this award's biggest winners, each having won it twice. Keys is also the category's biggest nominee, receiving her eighth nomination in 2023. In 2025, Mariah Carey won, winning her first ever competitive Video Music Award and winning the same night she received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
Recipients
1990s + Year Winner(s) Video Nominees En Vogue "Free Your Mind" Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue "Whatta Man" TLC "Waterfalls" The Fugees "Killing Me Softly" Puff Daddy "I'll Be Missing You" Wyclef Jean "Gone Till November" Lauryn Hill "Doo Wop (That Thing)"
2000s + Year Winner(s) Video Nominees Destiny's Child "Say My Name" Destiny's Child "Survivor" Mary J. Blige "No More Drama" Beyoncé "Crazy in Love" Alicia Keys "If I Ain't Got You" Alicia Keys "Karma" Beyoncé "Check on It" – colspan="4"
2010s + Year Winner(s) Video Nominees – colspan="4" Normani "Waves"
2020s + Year Winner(s) Video Nominees The Weeknd "Blinding Lights" Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak and Silk Sonic "Leave the Door Open" The Weeknd "Out of Time" SZA "Shirt" 2024 SZA "Snooze" 2025 Mariah Carey "Type Dangerous" Bruno Mars "I Just Might"
Statistics Artists with multiple wins 2 wins Beyoncé Alicia Keys Bruno Mars En Vogue Destiny's Child SZA The Weeknd
Artists with multiple nominations
9 nominations Alicia Keys
6 nominations Chris Brown
5 nominations SZA Usher
4 nominations Beyoncé Toni Braxton Mariah Carey H.E.R. R. Kelly Summer Walker The Weeknd
3 nominations Mary J. Blige Brandy Aaliyah Boyz II Men
2 nominations D'Angelo Destiny's Child 21 Savage Chlöe Normani Cardi B Anderson .Paak En Vogue Ashanti Faith Evans 112 Ludacris Bruno Mars Diddy
See also MTV Europe Music Award for Best R&B
Notes
References