2025 MTV Video Music Awards Nominees: The Full List

Lady Gaga led the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards nominations with 12, followed by Bruno Mars with 11 and Kendrick Lamar with 10, according to MTV/Paramount’s August 5 announcement. The ceremony took place on September 7, 2025, so voting is closed and the event is over. Here are the nominees in the categories listed in the original announcement.

Who led the 2025 VMA nominations?

MTV/Paramount reported 12 nominations for Lady Gaga, 11 for Bruno Mars and 10 for Kendrick Lamar; the Associated Press also reported those totals. Gaga’s nominations spanned performance and craft categories, while collaborations such as “Die With A Smile” and “APT.” appeared in multiple races. MTV/Paramount also said there were 33 first-time nominees.

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Best Pop Artist and Best Country were new categories in the 2025 announcement. The list below follows that announcement’s category names and nominee credits. Song and album titles retain the official release’s styling where provided.

2025 VMA nominees: Full list

Video of the Year

• Ariana Grande — “brighter days ahead”
• Billie Eilish — “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”
• Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”
• Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars — “Die With A Smile”
• ROSÉ & Bruno Mars — “APT.”
• Sabrina Carpenter — “Manchild”
• The Weeknd, Playboi Carti — “Timeless”

Artist of the Year

• Bad Bunny
• Beyoncé
• Kendrick Lamar
• Lady Gaga
• Morgan Wallen
• Taylor Swift
• The Weeknd

Song of the Year

• Alex Warren — “Ordinary”
• Billie Eilish — “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”
• Doechii — “Anxiety”
• Ed Sheeran — “Sapphire”
• Gracie Abrams — “I Love You, I’m Sorry”
• Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars — “Die With A Smile”
• Lorde — “What Was That”
• ROSÉ & Bruno Mars — “APT.”
• Tate McRae — “Sports Car”
• The Weeknd, Playboi Carti — “Timeless”

Best New Artist

• Alex Warren
• Ella Langley
• Gigi Perez
• Lola Young
• sombr
• The Marías

Best Pop Artist (new category)

• Ariana Grande
• Charli xcx
• Justin Bieber
• Lorde
• Miley Cyrus
• Sabrina Carpenter
• Tate McRae

MTV Push Performance of the Year

• August 2024 — Shaboozey, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”
• September 2024 — Ayra Starr, “Last Heartbreak Song”
• October 2024 — Mark Ambor, “Belong Together”
• November 2024 — Lay Bankz, “Graveyard”
• December 2024 — Dasha, “Bye Bye Bye”
• January 2025 — KATSEYE, “Touch”
• February 2025 — Jordan Adetunji, “KEHLANI”
• March 2025 — Leon Thomas, “YES IT IS”
• April 2025 — Livingston, “Shadow”
• May 2025 — Damiano David, “Next Summer”
• June 2025 — Gigi Perez, “Sailor Song”
• July 2025 — ROLE MODEL, “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out”

Best Collaboration

• Bailey Zimmerman with Luke Combs — “Backup Plan (Stagecoach Official Music Video)”
• Kendrick Lamar & SZA — “luther”
• Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars — “Die With A Smile”
• Post Malone featuring Blake Shelton — “Pour Me A Drink”
• ROSÉ & Bruno Mars — “APT.”
• Selena Gomez, benny blanco — “Sunset Blvd”

Best Pop

• Alex Warren — “Ordinary”
• Ariana Grande — “brighter days ahead”
• Ed Sheeran — “Sapphire”
• Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars — “Die With A Smile”
• ROSÉ & Bruno Mars — “APT.”
• Sabrina Carpenter — “Manchild”

Best Hip-Hop

• Doechii — “Anxiety”
• Drake — “NOKIA”
• Eminem featuring Jelly Roll — “Somebody Save Me”
• GloRilla featuring Sexyy Red — “WHATCHU KNO ABOUT ME”
• Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”
• LL COOL J featuring Eminem — “Murdergram Deux”
• Travis Scott — “4X4”

Best R&B

• Chris Brown — “Residuals”
• Leon Thomas & Freddie Gibbs — “MUTT (REMIX)”
• Mariah Carey — “Type Dangerous”
• PARTYNEXTDOOR — “N o C h i l l”
• Summer Walker — “Heart of a Woman”
• SZA — “Drive”
• The Weeknd, Playboi Carti — “Timeless”

Best Alternative

• Gigi Perez — “Sailor Song”
• Imagine Dragons — “Wake Up”
• Lola Young — “Messy”
• mgk & Jelly Roll — “Lonely Road”
• sombr — “back to friends”
• The Marías — “Back to Me”

Best Rock

• Coldplay — “ALL MY LOVE”
• Evanescence — “Afterlife (From the Netflix Series ‘Devil May Cry’)”
• Green Day — “One Eyed Bastard”
• Lenny Kravitz — “Honey”
• Linkin Park — “The Emptiness Machine”
• twenty one pilots — “The Contract”

Best Latin

• Bad Bunny — “BAILE INoLVIDABLE”
• J Balvin — “Rio”
• KAROL G — “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido”
• Peso Pluma & Netón Vega — “LA PATRULLA”
• Rauw Alejandro & Romeo Santos — “Khé?”
• Shakira — “Soltera”

Best K-Pop

• aespa — “Whiplash”
• JENNIE — “like JENNIE”
• Jimin — “Who”
• JISOO — “earthquake”
• LISA featuring Doja Cat & RAYE — “Born Again”
• Stray Kids — “Chk Chk Boom”
• ROSÉ — “toxic till the end”

Best Afrobeats

• Asake & Travis Scott — “Active”
• Burna Boy featuring Travis Scott — “TaTaTa”
• MOLIY, Silent Addy, Skillibeng & Shenseea — “Shake It to the Max (FLY) (Remix)”
• Rema — “Baby (Is It a Crime)”
• Tems featuring Asake — “Get It Right”
• Tyla — “PUSH 2 START”
• Wizkid featuring Brent Faiyaz — “Piece of My Heart”

Best Country (new category)

• Chris Stapleton — “Think I’m in Love with You”
• Cody Johnson with Carrie Underwood — “I’m Gonna Love You”
• Jelly Roll — “Liar”
• Lainey Wilson — “4x4xU”
• Megan Moroney — “Am I Okay?”
• Morgan Wallen — “Smile”

Best Album

• Bad Bunny — DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
• Kendrick Lamar — GNX
• Lady Gaga — Mayhem
• Morgan Wallen — I’m the Problem
• Sabrina Carpenter — Short n’ Sweet
• The Weeknd — Hurry Up Tomorrow

Best Direction

• Ariana Grande — “brighter days ahead”
• Charli xcx — “Guess featuring Billie Eilish”
• Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”
• Lady Gaga — “Abracadabra”
• ROSÉ & Bruno Mars — “APT.”
• Sabrina Carpenter — “Manchild”

Best Cinematography

• Ariana Grande — “brighter days ahead”
• Billie Eilish — “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”
• Doechii — “Denial Is a River”
• Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”
• Lady Gaga — “Abracadabra”
• ROSÉ & Bruno Mars — “APT.”

Best Editing

• Ariana Grande — “brighter days ahead”
• Billie Eilish — “BIRDS OF A FEATHER”
• Doechii — “Denial Is a River”
• Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”
• Lady Gaga — “Abracadabra”
• ROSÉ & Bruno Mars — “APT.”

Best Art Direction

• Charli xcx — “Guess featuring Billie Eilish”
• Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”
• Lady Gaga — “Abracadabra”
• Lorde — “Man of the Year”
• Miley Cyrus — “End of the World”
• ROSÉ & Bruno Mars — “APT.”

Best Choreography

• Doechii — “Anxiety”
• FKA twigs — “Eusexua”
• Kendrick Lamar — “Not Like Us”
• Lady Gaga — “Abracadabra”
• Tyla — “PUSH 2 START”
• Zara Larsson — “Pretty Ugly”

Best Visual Effects

• Ariana Grande — “brighter days ahead”
• Lady Gaga — “Abracadabra”
• ROSÉ & Bruno Mars — “APT.”
• Sabrina Carpenter — “Manchild”
• Tate McRae — “Just Keep Watching”
• The Weeknd — “Hurry Up Tomorrow”

What happened after the nominations?

The ceremony was scheduled for September 7, 2025, at UBS Arena at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. MTV/Paramount’s announcement named CBS and MTV as U.S. broadcast options and Paramount+ as a U.S. streaming option. General fan voting was scheduled to close September 5 at 6 p.m. ET, while Best New Artist voting continued into the show; both voting windows have passed. See the official MTV/Paramount announcement for the original schedule.

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In the results reported after the show, Lady Gaga won Artist of the Year, Best Collaboration, Best Direction and Best Art Direction; Ariana Grande won Video of the Year. Those are winners, not additional nominees. CBS News’ winners recap lists the post-ceremony results.

The list above reflects the categories in the original nomination release. MTV later announced additional social categories, Best Group and Song of the Summer. Those categories were announced separately; this roster does not claim to reproduce their nominees or the complete final set of categories.

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Sources

• MTV/Paramount: 2025 VMA nominations announcement
• CBS News: 2025 VMA nominee list
• Associated Press: nomination leaders and context

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