MTV VMAs 2025 as it happened: Ariana Grande takes home top gong, pipping Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar

Thank you for joining us on what was a strange ride, with some cracking performances.

Lady Gaga wowed in a pre-recorded performance after racing off to Madison Square Garden where she is performing her record-breaking tour, Mayhem Ball.

Sabrina Carpenter got a little bit political with her performance of Tears being a highlight of an otherwise mediocre VMAs, and Mariah Carey showed she still has that famous voice in good health.

Here are the big winners and you can catch up on all the action below.

• Video of the Year Ariana Grande: Brighter Days Ahead
• Artist of the Year: Lady Gaga
• Song of the Year: Rosé & Bruno Mars, APT
• Best Album: Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet
• Best Collaboration: Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars, Die With A Smile
• Best Pop Artist: Sabrina Carpenter
• Best Group: Blackpink
• Best Pop: Ariana Grande, Brighter Days Ahead
• Best Rock: Coldplay, All My Love
• Best Hip-Hop: Doechii, Anxiety
• Best Latin: Shakira, Soltera
• Best R&B: Mariah Carey, Type Dangerous
• Best Alternative: Sombr, Back to Friends
• Best K-pop: Lisa ft. Doja Cat & Raye, Born Again
• Best Afrobeats: Tyla, Push 2 Start
• Best Country: Megan Moroney, Am I Okay?
• Best New Artist: Alex Warren
• Push Performance of the Year: Katseye
• Song of the Summer: Tate McRae, Just Keep Watching

Ariana Grande, she of Wicked fame, has won Best Pop for her music video Brighter Days Ahead, her first VMA of 2025.

Grande beat out Alex Warren, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars, Rosé & Bruno Mars, Sabrina Carpenter, taking a moment to thank the “village” it takes to help make a music video.

Grande is tied with her frequent collaborator the Weeknd as the sixth-most-nominated artist of the evening, with seven nods each. Only Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter, and Rosé stand ahead of them.

The Brighter Days Ahead film clip was directed by Christian Breslauer and cowritten by him and Grande. The clip sees Grande reprising her role as Peaches, a character who first appears in the music video for We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love).

Brighter Days Ahead takes place 70 years later, when Peaches is given the opportunity to revisit four of her most valuable memories one last time. Brighter Days Ahead was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Pop, Best Long Form Video, Best Direction, Best Cinematography (Jeff Cronenweth), and Best Visual Effects (Mathematic).

We’ve reached the point of the VMAs where it’s been going on so long that the concept of time no longer holds any meaning.

Need proof? Sabrina Carpenter just won Album of the Year for Short n’ Sweet, which isn’t even her most recent album.

Anyway, she seemed pretty excited about winning her second VMA of the evening.

You know the cost of living crisis is bad when even Lady Gaga has to work two jobs.

Fresh from attending the VMAs and winning Artist of the Year, Gaga rushed across town to Madison Square Garden, where she is performing her record-breaking tour, Mayhem Ball.

The star has the most nominations this evening, with Artist of the Year and Best Album (Mayhem) nods. Gaga and Bruno Mars’s Die With a Smile is also up for Video of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Collaboration, and Best Pop Song while her song Abracadabra is nominated for Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Choreography, and Best Visual Effects.

Her pre-recorded performance had all the hallmarks of a typical Gaga spectacular – outfit changes, wild backup dancers and insane choreography – closing the set with her latest hit, The Dead Dance.

Far out, Mariah Carey. Turns out she’s still got it. Ariana Grande summed it up when she introduced Mariah by stating, “Every singer wants to be Mariah”, and after this medley performance, it’s difficult to disagree.

While Carey might be a bit of a strange cat (remember when she was engaged to James Packer?), there’s no denying the pipes on her.

The recipient of this year’s Vanguard Award, Carey basically hit shuffle on my 2006 iPod Nano and went for gold, cycling through certified bangers including Fantasy, Heartbreaker, Obsessed, It’s Like That, and We Belong Together.

The performance was flawless and then Mariah took to the stage and promptly went full Mariah, using the platform to remind audiences this was her first ever VMA award: “What were you waiting for MTV?”