MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist

The following is a list of the MTV Video Music Awards winners for Best New Artist. From 1984 to 2006, the award was named Best New Artist in a Video; in 2007 its name was changed to Best New Artist, as the category underwent a format change to award the artist's body of work for the full year rather than a specific video. For the 2008 ceremony, though, while the award retained its 2007 name, it returned to the format of awarding a specific video rather than the artist's full body of work.

This award is often poked fun at as the "Death Award", as it represented the peak of some winners' careers. Four artists who won the award (Eurythmics, Nirvana, Avenged Sevenfold and Gym Class Heroes) were technically ineligible since the winning song did not come off of their respective debut records (which were released in 1981, 1989, 2001 and 2004 respectively).