Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, and Sabrina Carpenter win the MTV VMAs 2025 amid a subdued award presentation
In a night that mostly honored female performers, singers took home two medals apiece, while Mariah Carey received a lifetime achievement award.
In a rather subdued ceremony that once again primarily honored female pop artists and heritage performers, Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, and Sabrina Carpenter emerged victorious at the MTV Video Music awards, each taking home two moonman trophies.
With 12 nominations, Gaga was the most nominated artist of the evening. She won the first artist of the year award at Long Island's UBS arena, defeating Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Bad Bunny—all of whom were not there.
The Disease singer dedicated the award to the audience and her partner, Michael Polansky, then dashed off to the final show on her Mayhem tour at Madison Square Garden.
“I cannot begin tell you what this means to me,” the singer said, dressed in a baroque black gown. “I hope as you navigate through the mayhem of daily life, you are reminded of the importance of the art of your life, that you can count on yourself and your simple skills to keep you whole.”
Gaga’s absence was one of many in a three-hour show that was relatively light on star power and awards. The ceremony was emceed by a largely off-screen LL Cool J and handed out only seven awards during the telecast, all of them to female artists and Bruno Mars for his collaborations with two female artists: his duet with Lady Gaga, Die With A Smile, won best collaboration, while Apt, his track with Blackpink member Rosé, was crowned song of the year.
“This is a really big moment for 16-year-old me and anyone else who has dreamed about being accepted equally for their hard work,” Rosé said in a lengthy and emotional speech.
While Grande won best pop video and the night's highest honor, video of the year, for Brighter Days Ahead, which she co-accepted with director Christian Breslauer, Sabrina Carpenter took home album of the year for Short n' Sweet and best pop artist.
“This project is about the hard work that is healing all different kinds of trauma and coming home to our young selves and creating safety in our own lives, which is a lifelong process and a daily exercise,” Grande said, accepting the award. “If you’re on that journey, please continue onward, because I promise there are brighter days ahead.”
As is now typical, the VMAs nodded toward the globalization and genre blends in popular music – Colombian superstar J Balvin and French producer DJ Snake teamed up for their track Noventa; multinational girl group Katseye, with members from the Philippines, South Korea, Switzerland and the US, won for Push performance of the year; and Post Malone and Jelly Roll, beaming in from their tour stop in Munich, represented the ongoing country-ification of pop with their booze-soaked anthem Losers.
With appearances by Doja Cat, Canadian singer Tate McRae, and Carpenter, who performed a retro-themed version of Tears with a who's who of RuPaul's Drag Race performers and dance legends as a statement on defending trans rights, the program, however, was slanted primarily toward women in pop.
With the introduction of two new lifetime achievement awards, the program that was once renowned for creating moments that defined culture has become more sensitive to legacy than its capacity to create new ones in recent years.
Inaugural Latin Icon honoree Ricky Martin performed a medley of hits including Livin’ La Vida Loca, Pégate, Maria and The Cup of Life, and attributed his 40-year career to his fans. “This is very simple: this is for you all,” he said. “I am addicted to your applause, that’s why I keep coming back.”
LL Cool J celebrated fellow hip-hop pioneer Busta Rhymes for the Rock the Bells Visionary Award, calling him a “sonic equivalent of a timebomb”. Busta Rhymes powered through a heavily bleeped medley of his rapid-fire bars alongside guests GloRilla, Spliff Star and Joyner Lucas, before accepting the award – named for a 1985 LL Cool J track – with a brief speech.
“The next time y’all take 35 years to give me one of these, then I’ll talk as long as I want,” he joked, thanking his family, God, DJ Scratch, and the late Ananda Lewis, a 1990s MTV host who “loved the culture and lifted us up” and died of cancer this year at the age of 52.
Mariah Carey was presented with the Video Vanguard Award by Ariana Grande, becoming the eighth consecutive woman to win the evening’s top lifetime achievement honor.
“I can’t believe I’m getting my first VMA tonight. I just have one question: what in the Sam Hill were you waiting for?” Carey joked, after performing a medley of her hits.
“Music videos are my way of life, of bringing music to my own life,” she continued. “Let’s be honest, sometimes they’re just an excuse to bring the drama and do things I wouldn’t do in real life … Music evolves, but fun? That is eternal.”
Ozzy Osbourne, who passed away in July, was also honored on the show. In honor of the "prince of darkness," English singer Yungblud performed the Black Sabbath hits Crazy Train and Changes, with Aerosmith's Joe Perry and Steven Tyler joining in on Mama, I'm Coming Home.
Sombr, Conan Gray, and Alex Warren, a TikTok star who turned musician and won best new artist prior to the ceremony, were among the other performers on the evening. Warren sang his unlikely smash Ordinary, which was the year's longest-running No 1.
