An accompanying music video , directed by Dave Meyers , was released on October 28 , 2010 . It portrays Perry singing and dancing around Budapest , with interspersed scenes of young people becoming confident in themselves . An open casting call for the music video drew an unprecedented 38,000 applicants . On MuchMusic 's top 50 videos of 2010 , " Firework " reached the top position . The music video was said to be a more upbeat take on Christina Aguilera 's message in " Beautiful " . It was nominated for three awards at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards , eventually winning one of those , the Video of the Year , the main and final award . " Firework " was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 54th Grammy Awards . On January 5 , 2012 , " Firework " was elected the fifth most played single on US radio during 2011 by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems , with 509,000 plays
54th Grammy Awards
54th Annual Grammy Awards
Firework (song)