Perry leads MTV award nominations

POP singer Katy Perry won a leading nine nominations for the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, reducing eccentric superstar Lady Gaga to also-ran status with just three nods.

Sultry British singer Adele, whose second album 21 is the world’s top-selling record this year, earned seven nominations — all of them for her hit single Rolling in the Deep.

Rapper Kanye West was the top male nominee, with seven nods for his futuristic ET collaboration with Perry, as well as his own music videos for All of the Lights and Power.

Soulful Grenade singer Bruno Mars earned four nominations while Beyonce, Eminem, rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars and female rapper Nicki Minaj racked up three nods apiece. The awards will be handed out during a televised live show in LA on August 28. Winners are picked by public voting.

The nine nods for Perry, 26, were the climax of an extraordinary 12 months that has seen the once struggling gospel singer reinvent herself as a pop sex kitten with a string of hits.

Perry will compete with Adele (Rolling in the Deep), first time VMA nominee Tyler the Creator (Yonkers ), Bruno Mars (Grenade) and the Beastie Boys (Make Some Noise) for video of the year.