Rihanna will receive MTV’s highest honour at the network’s star-studded Video Music Awards in New York later.

The Barbadian singer, 28, is being presented with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, MTV’s equivalent of a lifetime achievement honour.

Kanye West, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears are among the past recipients of the award.

Rihanna, who is the youngest solo artist in US chart history to score 14 number one singles, will open the VMAs with a medley of some of her biggest hits.

The ceremony will see Adele battle it out for the top awards with Beyonce, who has the most nominations with 11.

Adele, who has eight nominations, is up for video of the year for her smash-hit single Hello, while Beyonce has been nominated in the same category for her Black Lives Matter-themed video Formation.

Beyonce
Beyonce has 11 VMA nominations (Matt Sayles/AP)

The women will compete against Drake’s Hotline Bling, Justin Bieber’s Sorry and Kanye’s controversial video Famous, which features nude waxworks of himself and a host of celebrities including his wife Kim Kardashian West, Donald Trump and Taylor Swift.

Kanye, who famously interrupted Taylor’s acceptance speech at the 2009 VMAs, will attend this year’s show and has reportedly been promised four-minutes of stage time at the event.

He will be joined by his wife Kim, who is handing out an award. Taylor who has no VMA nominations this year, is not expected to attend the ceremony.

Kanye West takes the microphone from singer Taylor Swift as she accepts the "Best Female Video" award during the MTV Video Music Awards
Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 VMAs (Jason DeCrow/AP)

Adele and Beyonce will compete with Rihanna, Sia and Ariana Grande for the best female video prize. Kanye and Drake are nominated in the best male video category, along with Bryson Tiller, Calvin Harris and The Weeknd.

Britney will give the first performance of her single Make Me from her new album Glory, while rapper Future, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, Nick Jonas and the Chainsmokers are also set to perform.

Britney Spears
Britney Spears at the 2001 MTV VMAs performing Slave 4 U (Beth A Keiser/AP/PA)

Naomi Campbell, Jimmy Fallon, Alicia Keys, Rita Ora and Sean “Diddy” Combs will present awards at Sunday’s show, which has no single host this year.

Recent Olympic gold medallists, swimmer Michael Phelps and US gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian are also expected to hand out awards.

The MTV VMAs take place at Madison Square Garden at 9pm (2am UK time). The awards will air in the UK on MTV at 9pm on Monday.