Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande were the big winners at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards, which were held at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., on Sunday (Sept. 7). Gaga won four awards, more than anyone else, but Grande took the highest profile award, video of the year, for “Brighter Days Ahead.”
Gaga became the second two-time winner for artist of the year, which was introduced in 2017. Taylor Swift was the first. Gaga’s four awards up her career total to 22, which puts her in third place on the all-time leaderboard, behind Swift and Beyoncé, who lead with 30 wins each. Gaga’s new wins enable her to pull ahead of Madonna, once the VMAs leader, who has won 20 Moon People.
Women thoroughly dominated the night. Of the 30 awards that were presented this year (including social categories and previously announced special awards), female solo artists or all-female groups won 22. Male solo artists and one all-male group (Coldplay) won six awards. The other two awards went to a pair of male/female collabs (Gaga and Bruno Mars, as well as ROSÉ and Mars).
Of the 10 genre-specific categories, eight went to female artists: Sabrina Carpenter, best pop artist; Grande, best pop; Doechii, best hip-hop; Mariah Carey, best R&B; Shakira, best Latin; LISA featuring Doja Cat & RAYE, best K-pop; Tyla, best Afrobeats; and Megan Moroney, best country. Only two genre-specific awards went to male artists: sombr (best alternative) and Coldplay (best rock).
Gaga also took best direction for her work on “Abracadabra” (which she co-directed with Bethany Vargas and Parris Goebel). This is the sixth year in a row that an artist has won in that category for directing or co-directing their own video. Swift has won four times times since 2020 as the sole director of her videos. Lil Nas X won four years ago for co-directing “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” with Tanu Muino.
Gaga and Mars won best collaboration for “Die With a Smile.” It’s Gaga’s third win in the category, following “Telephone” (featuring Beyoncé) and “Rain on Me” (with Grande). This puts Gaga in a tie with Swift for the most wins in this category. Swift won for collabs with Kendrick Lamar, Zayn and Post Malone.
In addition to winning video of the year, “Brighter Days Ahead” also won best long-form video. It’s only the fourth time that award has been presented. Previous winners are Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection (1991), Beyoncé’s Lemonade (2016) and Swift’s All Too Well: The Short Film (2022).
Like Grande, Sabrina Carpenter won three awards, including album of the year for Short n’ Sweet. That same album won best pop vocal album at the Grammys in February.
Other multiple winners on the night were Mars, Tate McRae, Doechii and Mariah Carey, with two each. Mars was the only male artist to score multiple wins. In addition, ROSÉ and Lisa won two awards, if you combine their best group win with BLACKPINK and their individual wins. ROSÉ won song of the year (in tandem with Mars) for “APT.” Lisa won best K-pop (with “Born Again,” which featured Doja Cat & RAYE).
MTV spread the riches around this year, as seen in the fact that no one received more than four wins. Even so, some artists were shut out, despite hefty numbers of nominations. These include The Weeknd (seven nods), and Bad Bunny, Ed Sheeran, Jelly Roll, Miley Cyrus and Morgan Wallen (four nods each).
Alex Warren won best new artist, becoming the first man to win in the category since Khalid in 2017. Warren prevailed over sombr and The Marías. (Ella Langley, Gigi Perez and Lola Young, who were nominees initially, didn’t make the cut to the final three.) All six artists are seen as strong candidates in the upcoming Grammy race for best new artist. (Grammy nominations will be announced on Nov. 7.)
BLACKPINK won best group, marking the seventh year in a row that a K-pop group has won in this category. Since the category was revived in 2019, it has been won by BTS four times, by BLACKPINK twice and by SEVENTEEN once.
Lisa won best K-pop for the third time, putting her in a tie with BTS for the most wins in the category (which originated in 2019). Lisa won this year in tandem with Djoja Cat and RAYE for “Born Again.”
Carey won best R&B for “Type Dangerous” – her first VMA win. She also received the Video Vanguard Award. At 56, she’s the oldest recipient of that award to date. She’s the first recipient of that award since the Beastie Boys in 1998 who had (at the time of her selection) not previously won a single VMA.
Megan Moroney’s “Am I Okay?” was the inaugural winner of best country, a category the VMAs finally added in its 42nd year.
McRae won Song of the Summer for “Just Keep Watching” (from F1 The Movie). The song, which peaked at No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June, beat four songs that reached No. 1 – Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” HUNTR/X’s “Golden,” Morgan Wallen featuring McRae’s “What I Want” and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild.” There is a precedent for a song that wasn’t a top 30 hit being voted Song of the Summer. BLACKPINK’s “How You Like That,” the 2020 winner, also peaked at No. 33.
Swift wasn’t nominated for video of the year – her only eligible video was “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” – which means this was the first time someone other than Swift won video of the year since 2021, when Lil Nas X took the prize for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name.”)
The VMAs aired on CBS for the first time this year and was simulcasted on MTV, and streamed on Paramount+ in the U.S.