MULTI-PLATINUM SUPERSTAR DRAKE TO PERFORM VMA NOMINATED HIT SINGLE "STARTED FROM THE BOTTOM" LIVE FOR FIRST TIME ON TELEVISION DURING 2013 "MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS"

DJ Cassidy To Serve as VMA Deejay

Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jared Leto, Kevin Hart Emeli Sandé and A$AP Rocky Confirmed to Present LIVE on Sunday, August 25 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT

NEW YORK, NY (August 21, 2013) - MTV today announced via its various social media channels that Grammy(R) Award winner, multi-platinum selling, recording artist Drake will perform his VMA-nominated top-10 smash "Started from the Bottom," for the first time on television live during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards live from Brooklyn's Barclays Center on Sunday, August 25th at 9pm ET/PT.

Drake's music video for "Started From the Bottom" is up for 2 VMAs this year including "Best Direction and "Best Hip Hop Video," the category he won last year with "HYFR" with Lil Wayne. The song is the first single from his forthcoming third studio album "Nothing Was The Same," to be released this fall, which also includes his latest hit single, "Hold On, We're Going Home." This marks Drake's second overall VMA performance since "Fancy" in 2010. To celebrate the forthcoming performance, MTV Hits, MTV's 24-hour music channel, and MTV Jams, MTV's 24-hour hip hop music channel, will feature a block of Drake music videos and musical performances at 3pm ET/PT.

Drake joins previously announced performers Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke.

Fresh off touring with Jay Z and Justin Timberlake on their Legends of Summer stadium tour, DJ Cassidy, who will soon release his debut album on Columbia Records, will serve as the VMA deejay and spin throughout the show. MTV also announced that "Video of the Year" and "Best Female Video" nominee Taylor Swift, is confirmed to present at this year's show, along with "Best Song of the Summer" nominee Selena Gomez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 30 Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto who is nominated for "Best Rock Video," Kevin Hart, Emeli Sandé and A$AP Rocky who is nominated for "Best Hip-Hop Video" for "F**kin Problems featuring Drake, 2Chainz and Kendrick Lamar.

Justin Timberlake and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis lead the nominations with six each. Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke have each garnered four nominations. P!nk and Thirty Seconds to Mars are each up for three Video Music Awards. Other notable nominees receiving multiple 2013 "MTV Video Music Award" nods range from the worlds of Pop, Hip-Hop, EDM, R&B and Rock and include previously nominated artists such as Taylor Swift, Drake, fun., Calvin Harris, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as well as first-time VMA nominees Kendrick Lamar, Lana Del Rey, The Weeknd and Capital Cities. 2013 VMA winners will take home a special-edition Moonman, re-imagined by world-renowned, Brooklyn-based artist KAWS created exclusively for this year's show. Justin Timberlake will be presented the coveted "Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award" joining a prestigious list of past recipients including Michael Jackson, Madonna, Peter Gabriel, R.E.M., Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Britney Spears.

To build anticipation for the show, MTV launched a successful cross platform social campaign, #RoadToTheVMAs, which features the Moonman in a myriad of iconic locations throughout Brooklyn and NYC. Thus far, the campaign has garnered more nearly 100 million social media impressions to date including over half a million likes on Instagram, 54 million impressions on Twitter, more than 40 million impressions on Facebook and over 1 million impressions on Tumblr.

For additional information on Drake, Bruno Mars, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Robin Thicke or any VMA nominated artist, including music, videos, interviews, and news, visit MTV's Artist Platform (Artists.MTV.com) a music discovery site that powers MTV/CMT/VH1's network of 60 million passionate music fans online and 100M homes on-air.

For updates, to see photos or for additional information on this year's show, please head to VMA.MTV.com, and follow @mtv on Instagram or Twitter.

Official sponsors of the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards adidas Originals, COVERGIRL, Kia Motors, ORBIT(R) GUM, Pepsi(R), State Farm(R), Taco Bell(R), and Windows Phone.

"MTV Video Music Awards"

Since the first "MTV Video Music Awards" aired in 1984, the VMAs instantly earned its reputation for delivering the most popular bands and artists to create the loudest, most influential and at times, the most controversial, annual live celebration of music in the world. No other award show has been responsible for creating more memorable or bigger musical moments in pop culture history than the MTV Video Music Awards.

The 2012 "MTV Video Music Awards," broadcast live from STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, was the #1 telecast across all TV for the night of September 6, 2012 in P12-34, scoring a 5.3 P12-34 rating with 6.1 million total viewers. Across the Viacom networks (MTV, VH1, MTV2 and Logo) the simulcast of the premiere averaged 8.0 million total viewers. Encore presentations of the 2012 show on MTV earned a 2.4 P12-34 rating at 10:00 p.m., and a 1.2 P12-34 rating at 12:00 a.m., for a total rating of 8.9 for the evening.

At the time, the telecast was also the #1 social TV event of the year according to Trendrr. With more than 19 million mentions, the 2012 VMAs more than tripled the full-day social-media response of 2012's record breaking telecast. In addition, MTV drove more online streams on this date than any other VMA show ever, and generated nearly a whopping 200 topics trended throughout the night, both in the U.S. and worldwide.

The 2013 "MTV Video Music Awards" will air across MTV's global network of more than 60 channels reaching more than a half-billion households around the world as well as through syndication. In addition, its convergent programming and content will reach the entire interactive community, via MTV's more than 200 digital media properties around the world. The 2012 VMAs was one of MTV's top performers in key markets across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia.

Jesse Ignjatovic/Den of Thieves is the Executive Producer for the 2013 "MTV Video Music Awards." Amy Doyle, Garrett English and Dave Sirulnick are Executive Producers. Joanna Bomberg, Jen Jones and Lee Lodge are Co-Executive Producers. Hamish Hamilton is Director. Wendy Plaut is Celebrity Talent Executive.

About MTV

MTV is the world's premier youth entertainment brand. With a global reach of more than a half-billion households, MTV is the cultural home of the millennial generation, music fans and artists, and a pioneer in creating innovative programming for young people. MTV reflects and creates pop culture with its Emmy(R), Grammy(R) and Peabody(R) award-winning content built around compelling storytelling, music discovery and activism across TV, online and mobile. MTV's sibling networks MTV2 and mtvU each deliver unparalleled customized content for young males, music fans and college students, and its online hub MTV.com is a leading destination for music, news and pop culture. MTV is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB, VIA), one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.