Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Adele are among some of the stars expected to jet into Belfast in November for the 2011 MTV EMAs following the announcement of this year's nominees.

American superstar Lady Gaga leads the pack with six nods, while Katy Perry and Bruno Mars come close behind with four.

British singer Adele - the top-selling artist of the year - has been nominated for three awards, with teen heartthrob Justin Bieber and Thirty Seconds To Mars, who recently played as part of the Belsonic festival in Belfast, also up for three.

The 18th annual MTV EMAs, which attracts the world's biggest music acts every year, will take place on Sunday, November 6 at 9pm at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast. Broadcast live on MTV channels round the world, it will be the largest showbiz event ever to be staged in Northern Ireland.

Two of the reigning queens of pop will go head-to-head at the event in four of the same categories, as Lady Gaga and Katy Perry compete for Best Live, Best Pop and Best Female, as well as Best Song, with Perry nominated for Firework and Gaga for Born This Way. Gaga is also nominated for Best Video for Born This Way and Biggest Fans.

Singer/songwriter Mars is up for four awards, including Best New, Best Male, Best Push and Best Song for Grenade. Adele has been nominated for Best Female, as well as Best Song and Best Video for Rolling In The Deep, and Justin Bieber will compete for Best Pop, Best Male and Biggest Fans.

Acts from a broad spectrum of genres have been nominated for awards, including Foo Fighters, Jennifer Lopez, Jessie J, Beyonce, Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Kings Of Leon and Eminem.

New this year is the Biggest Fans award, which will go to the most passionate fanbase for a particular artist. Viewers can vote for their favourite EMA artists by visiting www.mtvema.com.

The more fans engage with the EMA content featured on the site, the more their participation and points can boost the chances for their favourite artist to win.

Also new this year is the World Wide Act category, which celebrates diversity and the breadth of all the music that MTV has to offer by nominating artists from all corners of the world. Fans will be able to vote for an artist/group from their respective territory in Europe starting yesterday, and then those local winners will vie for the European title the week of October 17.

The representative for Europe will be announced the week of October 24, along with the regional nominees from Latin America, North America, Asia Pacific and Africa/India/Middle East, and those five regional nominees will then battle for the World Wide Act distinction. The winner will be named at the show in Belfast.

Although the line-up has not yet been revealed, it is understood many of the big name acts will make an appearance.

Last year Lady Gaga missed the EMAs as she was touring and accepted her awards via a live link-up from Budapest.

It is expected she will be keen to take part at this year's awards.