Perry was also the first performer announced for the awards, which will be aired globally from Los Angeles on August 27.
MTV broke the news by posting a picture of the newly blonde singer clad as an astronaut — a nod to the awards’ “Moonman” statuette and the network’s early commercials.
In a statement, Perry joked that she had started “training in zero gravity.”
MTV has experimented with different host formats for the annual party, which are generally better remembered for attention-grabbing on-stage incidents than for the award winners.
Miley Cyrus hosted the event two years ago, but in 2016, MTV decided to have multiple presenters throughout the night rather than a single host.
Perry, the only person with more than 100 million followers on Twitter, is up for five VMAs this year for “Chained to the Rhythm,” her disco-inspired track whose video presents a sci-fi amusement park fantasy.
The 32-year-old has three videos that have reached one billion views on YouTube, led by “Roar.”
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