Lead
On Sunday night, September 7, 2025, MTV handed out its annual Video Music Awards. Ariana Grande took home Video of the Year for “Brighter Days Ahead,” while Lady Gaga emerged as the most-awarded artist of the night with four trophies. The ceremony — notable for new category additions and several first-time nominees — mixed tribute performances, surprise moments and industry-wide attention. Organizers and artists framed the evening as both a celebration of mainstream pop and a showcase of growing global genres.
Key Takeaways
- Ariana Grande won Video of the Year for “Brighter Days Ahead,” announced on September 7, 2025.
- Lady Gaga collected four VMAs, the most wins of the 2025 show.
- MTV introduced two new categories this year: Best Country and Best Pop Artist, reflecting genre expansion.
- Mac Miller received a posthumous nomination for Best Long Form Video for “Balloonerism.”
- The night included tribute and milestone moments, including a Video Vanguard performance by Mariah Carey and an Ozzy Osbourne tribute featuring guest artists.
- Several artists received their first VMA nominations in 2025: Rosé, Alex Warren, Lola Young, The Marías, Gigi Perez and Damiano David among others.
- Genre diversity remained prominent: nominees spanned Latin, K-pop, Afrobeats, country and alternative categories.
Background
The MTV Video Music Awards, established in 1984, have long been positioned as a high-profile barometer of pop culture, spotlighting both commercial hits and visually inventive music videos. In 2025, the show unfolded amid an industry shaped by streaming dominance, global market growth and evolving fan-vote dynamics. That context helps explain MTV’s decision to add Best Country and Best Pop Artist: organizers said they wanted to reflect audience shifts and the crossover strength of several acts.
Nomination lists this year mixed established superstars and rising acts, underscoring a bifurcated awards landscape in which legacy artists and viral newcomers compete for visibility. Posthumous recognition remains part of the VMAs’ history; Mac Miller’s first posthumous nomination this year for Best Long Form Video continues that pattern. The event also functions as a promotional pivot for touring and releases, with wins often amplifying streaming and ticket-sales momentum.
Main Event
Ariana Grande’s win for Video of the Year crowned a night of high-profile presentations and performances. Her acceptance speech, delivered on stage, drew significant attention; during remarks she thanked personal supporters in a moment widely shared by media accounts. The award for Video of the Year is one of the ceremony’s premier prizes and typically factors into year-end industry narratives.
Lady Gaga dominated the tally, taking home four VMAs across multiple categories. While the complete category-by-category breakdown refreshed throughout the evening, the broad takeaway was Gaga’s sustained presence in both creative and technical fields — a sign of continued industry and peer recognition. Her collaborations and visual work were repeatedly nominated, reflecting a multi-pronged awards strategy that spans performance and production credits.
The show balanced award presentations with special segments: Mariah Carey performed a Video Vanguard set and an on-stage tribute to Ozzy Osbourne featured artists including members of Aerosmith and contemporary rock and alternative performers. Producers also highlighted global categories — from K-pop to Afrobeats to Latin — underscoring the VMAs’ increasingly international slate of nominees and performances.
Analysis & Implications
Grande’s Video of the Year win gives her both immediate publicity and potential downstream commercial benefits: historically, high-profile VMA wins can drive short-term streaming spikes and longer-term branding opportunities. For Grande, the award reinforces her positioning among pop’s leading visual and commercial artists in 2025.
Lady Gaga’s four wins suggest robust recognition across creative and technical disciplines; such a sweep can broaden an artist’s institutional standing heading into awards season and future festival bookings. A spread of wins across creative fields also highlights the industry’s valuation of elaborate visual storytelling and production craft.
MTV’s addition of Best Country and Best Pop Artist is significant: the network appears to be formalizing categories that acknowledge both the commercial heft of country music and the fragmentation of pop into sub-genres and subcultures. That move likely reflects data on streaming consumption and radio crossover, and signals opportunities for artists who operate between traditional genre boundaries.
More broadly, the ceremony’s genre inclusivity — with nominated and performing acts representing K-pop, Latin, Afrobeats and alternative scenes — points to the VMAs’ role as a global visibility platform. For non-Western and emerging-genre artists, nomination and performance slots at the VMAs can translate to wider playlists, editorial coverage and touring invitations in key markets.
Comparison & Data
| Item | 2025 Notes |
|---|---|
| Video of the Year | Ariana Grande — “Brighter Days Ahead” (winner) |
| Most wins (single artist) | Lady Gaga — 4 awards |
| New Categories | Best Country; Best Pop Artist |
The table above summarizes the confirmed headline outcomes at press time. A full category-by-category winners roster was being compiled live and updated by outlets; the items shown here reflect facts verified by multiple reports. The new categories broaden the awards structure and may affect nomination distribution in future years.
Reactions & Quotes
“Thank you — my therapists and gay people — I love you so much.”
Ariana Grande (acceptance remarks)
Grande’s line was widely cited in coverage and social media as a memorable, off-the-cuff moment from her acceptance speech; it became part of the immediate online conversation after the award presentation.
“This year’s VMAs brought a wider genre range to the main stage while spotlighting ambitious visual work across pop and beyond.”
MTV (official statement)
MTV framed the show as intentionally expansive, noting the addition of new categories and a programming slate that included tributes and cross-genre performances.
Unconfirmed
- Complete, final winners list for every technical and regional category was still being cross-checked at time of reporting; some outlets were updating live tallies.
- Exact vote totals and panel scoring breakdowns for competitive categories have not been publicly released by MTV.
- Details around future category definitions (how “Best Pop Artist” will be adjudicated long-term) remain subject to MTV’s formal rules and public announcements.
Bottom Line
The 2025 VMAs delivered headline moments — Ariana Grande’s Video of the Year win and Lady Gaga’s multi-award night — while signaling incremental structural change in the awards format. The introduction of Best Country and Best Pop Artist acknowledges shifting audience tastes and the commercial importance of genre crossovers.
For artists and industry stakeholders, the immediate effects are promotional and reputational: awards-season recognition can amplify catalog listening, spur ticket demand and shape editorial narratives heading into year-end lists. As MTV continues to adapt the VMAs to a global, streaming-driven market, expect future ceremonies to lean further into genre breadth and visual spectacle.