MTV VMAs 2025: Winners and Big Moments From a Night of Visual Power

Four Moon Person trophies and a dozen nominations turned into a statement: Lady Gaga owned the night at the MTV VMAs 2025. The pop powerhouse, already a fixture in VMA lore, converted her leading 12 nods into four wins, headlining a show that doubled down on star power, collaborations, and the art of the music video.

Close behind, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter each walked away with three wins, underscoring how different lanes of pop can thrive in the same year—one a veteran headliner with a bulletproof catalog, the other a fast-rising hitmaker who has transformed momentum into hardware. Bruno Mars, nominated 11 times, collected two trophies, matching the two-win tally of Tate McRae, Doechii, and Mariah Carey.

Who won big and why it mattered

The scoreboard told a clear story: the VMAs rewarded both long-term excellence and breakthrough heat. Here’s the quick snapshot of the winners’ circle by total trophies:

• Lady Gaga — 4 wins (from 12 nominations)
• Ariana Grande — 3 wins
• Sabrina Carpenter — 3 wins
• Bruno Mars — 2 wins (from 11 nominations)
• Tate McRae — 2 wins
• Doechii — 2 wins
• Mariah Carey — 2 wins

Gaga’s haul was less about surprise and more about confirmation. She’s spent more than a decade treating the music video as a full-contact sport—costume design, choreography, narrative, and theater—so a strong showing fit the night’s theme: the visual still matters in the streaming era. Grande’s triple win reinforced her grip on pop’s center lane. Carpenter’s three wins certified a year where viral attention translated into sustained success.

Mars’ 11 nominations and two wins show how the VMAs often separate volume from victory. Multiple nods can spread across categories, especially when the field is stacked with heavy visual concepts. The two-win nights for McRae and Doechii signal what’s next: both have leveraged sharp visuals to carve out identities beyond radio play. And Mariah Carey’s two trophies offered a reminder that legacy and reinvention can coexist on the same stage.

The VMAs have long shifted with the culture. This year, the show leaned into cross-genre chemistry and collaborations, reflecting how fans actually consume music—playlists over purism, pair-ups over strict boundaries.

New categories, voting, and standout performances

MTV added two categories in 2025—Best Country and Best Pop Artist—tracking where audiences are listening and sharing. Country’s surge into mainstream feeds over the past year demanded space on the VMAs stage. Best Pop Artist, meanwhile, acknowledged the pop ecosystem as its own force: artists who build eras, set aesthetics, and anchor global tours on the back of their visual identity.

The road to the trophies began early. The first nomination slate dropped on August 5, 2025. Social category nominees (Best Group and Song of Summer) followed on August 29, ensuring the late-summer chatter didn’t cool off. Fans drove outcomes through a General Voting Period running August 5 to September 5, with one twist: Best New Artist stayed open until the end of the broadcast to keep the drama live.

Nomination counts told a different story from the winner’s list. Here’s how the top contenders stacked up on paper:

• Bruno Mars — 11 nominations
• Kendrick Lamar — 10 nominations
• Sabrina Carpenter — 9 nominations
• ROSÉ — 8 nominations
• Ariana Grande — 7 nominations
• Billie Eilish — 6 nominations
• Tate McRae — 6 nominations
• The Weeknd — 6 nominations
• Charli XCX — 5 nominations
• Alex Warren — 4 nominations
• Bad Bunny — 4 nominations
• Doechii — 4 nominations
• Ed Sheeran — 4 nominations
• Jelly Roll — 4 nominations
• Miley Cyrus — 4 nominations
• Morgan Wallen — 4 nominations

On stage, the night turned into a case study in collaborations. Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars played off each other’s strengths—Gaga’s maximalist visuals meeting Mars’ precision showmanship. ROSÉ joined Mars for a set that bridged pop polish and soulful swing, a pairing that felt built for a massive global audience. The Weeknd’s performance with Playboi Carti leaned into mood and texture, the kind of dark, cinematic palette that the VMAs reward because it reads instantly on screen.

These sets mattered for more than spectacle. The VMAs are one of the few nights left where artists can reframe a single or cement a visual era in front of a mainstream audience. A bold staging choice can push a song back up the charts or turn a casual listener into a fan. In that sense, the biggest winner is still the music video format: the three-minute movie that defines an album cycle, a persona, or a summer.

The new Best Country category marks a strategic pivot. Country has been climbing on short-form video platforms and streaming playlists, and its crossover moments—duets, remixes, and pop collaborations—now feel like part of the release plan, not an outlier. Recognizing Best Pop Artist, meanwhile, lines up with how pop operates in 2025. Fans aren’t just voting for a single—they’re voting for world-building: visuals, choreography, styling, and the rollout that binds it all together.

Fan participation stayed at the heart of the show. With voting live for a full month and one race running through the final minutes, the VMAs turned audience energy into results. That’s helped the franchise keep its edge: engagement doesn’t stop at the red carpet; it stretches through rehearsals, reveal posts, and the last confetti drop.

If you track trends, this year’s slate read like a map of modern pop: established icons still stacking wins, new faces making fast runs, and genre lines fading under the weight of constant collaboration. The VMAs leaned into that reality—rewarding visual ambition, stacking the stage with unlikely pairings, and letting fans arbitrate the close calls.

That’s why the headline wasn’t just who won—it was how they won. Big ideas, tight execution, and visuals that hold up on a phone screen and a stadium jumbotron. The music video isn’t a relic. It’s the blueprint.