For the first time, the MTV Video Music Awards did not air primarily on MTV. You could watch the 2025 show there, but it was proudly broadcast on the CBS Television Network, which also meant that an old friend, LL Cool J, was brought on to host. Did this mean a bigger show? Something that Paramount Skydance Corporation would be happy to have boost ratings in place of the departing Grammy Awards? You’d think so. Instead, there were multiple performances that were just concert recordings. A Video Vanguard who looked like she wanted to be anywhere but her native Long Island. And the world having to hear Yungblud pretend to be Ozzy Osbourne. It’s not all bad, of course, as Sabrina Carpenter and Lady Gaga (even from a different venue) did their best to bring some pizzazz to a show typically known for its over-the-top nature. Below, find some takeaways from a shaky attempt to make a new Music’s Biggest Night.
Sabrina Carpenter Steals the Show
Clairo should watch her back; there's a new Gen-Z Teena Marie in town. Sabrina Carpenter emerged from a personally embossed manhole onto a New York street straight out of Ryan Murphy's Pose to perform “Tears,” the release-day single from her new album, Man’s Best Friend. Colman Domingo in drag was cute and all, but it was a delight to see Carpenter flanked onstage by real drag performers and unequivocally calling for trans solidarity amid the White House’s continued attacks against trans rights. Call it playing the hits, but the hydrotechnics and Britney-lite choreo that closed out the number carried a glimmer of the bigger, better, brighter VMAs that once were.
–Walden Green
A Very Tame Doja Cat
Was she even trying? Doja Cat opened the show with an ’80s homage in the form of her new single “Jealous Type.” I’m not sure she was ever louder than her backing track. Overall, a very run-of-the-mill performance from an artist who hosted the VMAs just four years ago and wore a chair on her head. I suppose it’s a way of signaling that the former “Mooo!” breakout is entering a more serious phase of her career, but it’s missing the point that Doja Cat is at her best when over-the-top and comedic.
–Matthew Strauss
Is the Lady Gaga in the Room With Us?
For one of the most innovative live artists of her generation, not to mention a VMAs icon—her 2009 “Paparazzi” is still the one to beat—Lady Gaga’s VMAs appearance was a literal retread. She performed “Abracadabra” and “The Dead Dance” in a pre-taped segment recorded at a Madison Square Garden stop of her Mayhem Ball Tour, itself a near-recreation of her Coachella headlining set from earlier this year. Her towering red ballgown, crawling with dancers like The Nutracker’s Mother Ginger, had its impact blunted through screens upon screens, and her eventual absence was palpable in the room full of devotees. (Gaga did show up to accept Artist of the Year, but swiftly left for another MSG show.) A slight miss in the ongoing Gaga Goodwill Tour.
–Walden Green
Post Malone and Another Remote Performance
Post Malone and Jelly Roll sounded great; nice audio quality, and the camera angles were just right. They really had every reason to deliver a good performance, because it was taped days ago in Germany. How badly did the VMAs need the Post Malone booking that he got the remote-performance treatment? (I thought we left those behind in 2020?) He hadn’t played the show since 2018, and his country album, F-1 Trillion, was not as culture-shifting or -dominating as it was expected to be. But I can’t blame Post Malone and Jelly Roll. They did fine.
–Matthew Strauss
The Sacrilegious Ozzy Osbourne Tribute
The VMAs’ tribute to late Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osborne was the most banal kind of sacrilege. For one, there’s nothing metal about Yungblud unless your idea of metal is Criss Angel Mindfreak. As Nuno Bettencourt shredded indiscriminately over Randy Rhoads’ iconic riff, the English pop-punk singer mugged and headbanged his way through “Crazy Train.” Meanwhile, Steven Tyler (who maybe shouldn’t have been invited in the first place) practically mangled his vocal cords doing “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” alongside guitarist Joe Perry. When Yungblud joined the Aerosmith musicians at the front of the stage you could tell Perry wasn’t having any of his antics, which was funny, but hardly a proper sendoff for such a titan of rock music.
–Walden Green
Tate McRae Kicked Sand
Tate McRae played the 2024 NHL All-Star Game, and she got rave reviews from the middle-aged Canadian broadcasters who were newly introduced to her sultry sounds and athletic dance moves. (The team she helped draft didn’t do so well.) For that particular demographic, it must’ve been the first time since Christina Aguilera that they saw someone command a stage and belt vocals straight outta the American Idol finale. McRae’s VMAs performance was a lot like her hockey one, so they must’ve loved it, but, for the rest of us, it’s a flat attempt at edginess. The Alberta-born singer did “Revolving Door” and “Sports Car” and danced through male models posed as statues. She kicked sand in one guy’s face, as if to say, this is as dangerous as I can be.
–Matthew Strauss
Mariah Carey Does What She Wants
Mariah Carey still sings live. The elusive chanteuse didn’t do much else during her Video Vanguard medley, but such is the prerogative of a diva. Between renditions of “Heartbreaker,” “It’s Like That,” and her new single “Sugar Sweet,” Carey sprinkled in Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s verse on “Fantasy (Remix),” the opening strains of “Honey,” 20 seconds of “Obsessed”—flexing the the sheer wealth of hits that could’ve easily powered a set three times as long in No. 1s alone. Her “We Belong Together” was triumphant, accompanied by a small string ensemble, but it was during her subsequent acceptance speech that Mariah Carey reminded everyone why she’s Mariah Carey, calling out MTV for having never before awarded her a VMA: “What in the Sam Hill were you waiting for?”
–Walden Green
Did Every Contemporary Rapper Turn Down the VMAs?
The show was hosted by LL Cool J. The marquee hip-hop performer was Busta Rhymes. Glorilla did step on stage for a bit during Busta’s set, but she, of course, didn’t do anything of her own. Did the VMAs try to book any contemporary rappers, or are the producers banking on Gen X parents watching it with their teenage kids? Busta Rhymes’ set was fine, fast-rapping and everything you might expect, but it’s not a great sign for an awards show when you present no rap awards and you’ve got Sombr there instead of a legitimate representation of one of the country’s biggest genres.
–Matthew Strauss