2025 VMA Awards Ceremony Recapped

The 2025 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) took place at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, on Sunday, Sept. 7. The awards show was hosted by famous rapper and actor LL Cool J and was broadcasted on CBS, streamed on Paramount+, and simulcasted on MTV. This year’s edition honored music videos and songs released between June 20, 2024, and June 18, 2025. As usual, it was a star-studded spectacle for the music industry thanks to many famous musicians appearing – but like always, it was a source for debate over who should win. Here’s how it went.

Pre-Show:

The VMAs pre-show was hosted by TV and radio personalities and frequent MTV hosts Nessa and Kevan Kenney, and the highlight of it was a performance by up-and-coming girl-group KATSEYE of HYBE Entertainment. They performed two of their genre-bending current hits, the hyper-pop influenced “Gnarly” and the Latin R&B tune “Gabriela.” The performance was hailed as iconic on social media, and it wasn’t the only time we saw KATSEYE onstage that night.

The Awards:

Most of the categories of the VMAs were selected and voted on by fans between August 5 and September 6 of this year, excluding Best New Artist which is voted on until the end of the ceremony.

First up, the Video of the Year went to Ariana Grande with Brighter Days Ahead, the short film that serves as a companion to her 2024 album Eternal Sunshine and its deluxe reissue, also called Brighter Days Ahead. She beat out pop superstars such as Sabrina Carpenter, Lady Gaga, Kendrick Lamar, and Billie Eilish.

Next, the Artist of the Year went to Lady Gaga. I think everyone saw this coming, she had multiple massive hits in the past year such as “Abracadabra” and “Die With A Smile” (featuring Bruno Mars).

The Song of the Year award went to K-pop’s ROSÉ (of BLACKPINK fame) and Bruno Mars for their blockbuster tune “APT.” I’m surprised that it beat out the bigger hit of “Die With A Smile,” but you cannot underestimate K-pop fans. Upon winning, ROSÉ said during her speech: “As my therapist tells me to do every day, I’d like to thank myself for not giving up even in the toughest of times. Always remember you’ve got you.”

Best New Artist went to Alex Warren, and the Internet responded with a lot of “seriously?” on X (formerly Twitter). Admittedly, the numbers speak for themselves: his song “Ordinary” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for ten non-consecutive weeks. However, most people expected his competitors The Marías or Sombr to win.

Best Pop Artist, a new category, was awarded to Sabrina Carpenter. In the past 18 months, she’s had two separate Billboard #1 albums and a #1 single. I don’t think anyone expected it to not be Sabrina Carpenter; I certainly didn’t.

Best Pop Video went to Ariana Grande with Brighter Days Ahead as well. Once again, a great short film in my opinion, but not a song. Regardless, it’s not “Best Pop Song;” it’s “Best Pop Video.”

MTV PUSH Performance of the Year is an award given to up-and-coming artists that connect with fans through the PUSH program. The award went to KATSEYE with their 2024 song “Touch.” The group’s leader Sophia Laforteza said upon receiving the award: “We are so grateful to HYBE and Geffen Records for believing in us. [...] Thank you to our Eyekons (fans); we are here because of you.”

Best Album was awarded to Sabrina Carpenter for Short ‘n’ Sweet, a mild surprise given some of her competitors (Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, and Morgan Wallen) all had equally or more successful albums. Key word: mild – Sabrina’s fanbase is strong and her album was much more well-loved by the general public, as well as me.

Best Collaboration went to “Die With A Smile” with Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. Most people saw this coming, the song was a massive hit worldwide. The only competition that I think had a slight chance of beating it was Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s hit “Luther.”

Best Hip-Hop went to Doechii with “Anxiety,” a surprising pick given that many people on the Internet argued it’s either 1) “not hip-hop” or 2) “a bad song.” Additionally, she was up against hits like Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Drake’s “Nokia,” and Travis Scott’s “4x4.” Perhaps this is the impact of TikTok, but its music video is pretty creative too.

The winner of Best R&B Video was Mariah Carey with “Type Dangerous,” and while her song was not as commercial as its competitors (most notably “Timeless” by The Weeknd & Playboi Carti), Mariah Carey is still objectively one of the most iconic R&B singers, and the music video was very well-done.

Best Alternative went to Sombr with “Back to Friends,” and honestly I feel that it was a good choice. “Back to Friends” is probably one of the biggest alternative crossover hits we’ve had in a while given its chart and streaming performance, and its music video is stunning.

The Best Rock award was given to Coldplay with “All My Love,” which was not exactly anyone’s first choice, particularly up against songs from artists like Linkin Park, Green Day, Evanescence,  and Lenny Kravitz. However, once again, this is also based on music videos, and “All My Love” has a beautifully done music video.

Best K-pop went to LISA (also of BLACKPINK fame)’s collaboration “Born Again” featuring Doja Cat and RAYE. Not fully a surprise, and definitely not a bad choice, but she was up against formidable opponents like Stray Kids, her groupmates JENNIE, ROSÉ, and JISOO, Jimin of BTS, and Stray Kids. I feel like that as good as the music video is, it comes down to fanbase sizes.

Best Country went to Megan Moroney with “Am I Okay?” I don’t know much about country music, I’m not a fan of it myself, but I was surprised to see she beat out country icons like Chris Stapleton and Morgan Wallen.

Video for Good went to Charli XCX and Billie Eilish’s hit “Guess,” which featured over 10,000 pairs of women’s undergarments that were donated to I Support The Girls, a charity who distributes related products to women suffering domestic violence, homelessness, and hardship. An excellent move on Charli’s part and a clear winner of its category.

Best Group, unsurprisingly, went to BLACKPINK, making them and their members 3-time VMA winners this year. I feel like every year the Best Group award ends up being a battle between K-pop groups, since most other bands don’t have strong enough fanbases to beat out K-pop. I think the only way a non-K-pop group could win is if One Direction magically reunited and put out their best album ever.

Finally, the Song of the Summer. It’s the category everyone waits for eagerly, and the last one given. It was awarded to Tate McRae with “Just Keep Watching” from the movie F1 (2025). Wow, this one was a surprise but not a bad song by any means. Based on cultural impact and commercial performance, there are other songs that could be considered for Song of the Summer. However, “Just Keep Watching” is a good song - not my first pick, but not horrible.

Performances

First off, I must address the Ozzy Osbourne tribute by Steven Tyler & Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Yungblud, and Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme. By virtually all standards it was an iconic performance, and the second Yungblud Ozzy tribute this year – both of which were met with massive praise. Many people, including myself, are new Yungblud fans thanks to these performances.

Sabrina Carpenter surprisingly only performed one song: her brand-new hit “Tears.” A good performance from a fun artist. In true VMAs fashion, very well-produced and designed.

Lady Gaga performed “Abracadabra” and “The Dead Dance” from Madison Square Garden, where she had a show at the same night as the VMAs (which she attended and left early). I don’t know how she did it, but she did.

Doja Cat and saxophonist Kenny G unexpectedly teamed up for her song “Jealous Type,” which Doja introduced using a video clip that harkens back to Max Headroom – “Sit back and turn the volume up to full max!” she said.

Conclusion

The 2025 MTV VMAs were iconic, as usual. I agree with some of the choices, and I disagree with some others – this is always how any awards show goes for me. There were plenty of surprises, the biggest being Tate McRae with Song of the Summer. In the past year, popular music has changed on a drastic scale, and I can only hope and predict that it changes even more in the next year. I can’t even begin to guess who’ll win next year.