After weeks of online voting, the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) came to our screens on Sep. 7; with it came mixed reactions from viewers, voters, and fans everywhere. The night showcased classic household names, fan favorites, emerging musicians, social media stars, record breakers, and a diverse variety of genres and nationalities.
The artist that owned the night, taking home the most awards of all the nominees, is none other than pop-icon Lady Gaga, who added four new trophies (Artist of the Year, Best Collaboration, Best Direction, and Best Art Direction) to her collection of eighteen.
She was followed closely by Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter each with two awards. This is where the controversy begins.
Carpenter has recently been a hot topic of drama and discourse after the release of her latest album in August, A Man’s Best Friend. Many fans called out the album’s “problematic messages”, criticizing the “vulgar” cover photo that featured Carpenter on her hands and knees while a faceless male figure tugs at her hair. Listeners viewed the scene depicted on the album cover as Carpenter objectifying and sexualizing herself to appeal to the male gaze.
Many also thought that Carpenter’s album painted herself as a harmful, stereotypical caricature of a woman: obliviously submissive, clueless, and ditzy, which was seen as a form of degrading women, and even “setting back” the current feminist movement.
“Her fans swore up and down that her album cover was satirical, feminist gold… was it even satire?” one TikTok user said.
“She’s so male centered it’s insane,” another said.
However, some fans defended Carpenter’s stylistic choices with the album’s cover, tracklist, photoshoots, promotion, and concept. Many of Carpenter’s fans claim that the album concept–specifically the cover–is satire, and meant to mock the very message that she is accused of promoting.
Though Carpenter’s controversy seemed to blow over in the past month, the strife was rekindled this month when Carpenter took home awards for Best Pop Artist, Best Album, and Best Visual Effects, the latter being for “Manchild,” one of her most controversial songs.
The Best R&B award went to Mariah Carey, who notably beat out SZA, Chris Brown, PARTYNEXTDOOR, The Weeknd, Playboi Carti, and Victorious’s Leon Thomas for the trophy. Coldplay won Best Rock for “All My Love” over Evenescence, Green Day, Lenny Kravitz, Linkin Park, and Twenty One Pilots.
The iconic voice behind “Hips Don’t Lie” and “Waka Waka” made a comeback; Shakira’s song “Soltera” was awarded Best Latin after fierce competition with newer artists like J Balvin and Bad Bunny. Many fans considered this proof of Shakira’s timelessness and undeniable staying power, remaining a music icon for some thirty years.
As predicted by many, Tyla’s “Push 2 Start” earned the Best Afrobeats award, and Megan Moroney, still an emerging artist, won Best Country for “Am I Okay?”, which has been rapidly gaining popularity online this past year.
The influence of online popularity was very evident in voting results, as many fans expressed after the award show. Viewers complained that some of their favorite artists were “robbed” of awards by social media influencers.
Most notably, TikTok star and former Hype House member Alex Warren was deemed Best New Artist over the singer Sombr and band The Marías. Some viewers suspected that his previous success as an influencer and affiliation with the most famous content house on TikTok gave him an unfair advantage over the other nominees, who they felt were more deserving of the award.
“I can’t believe he won over The Marías,” one TikTok user said. “That award was theirs; they were totally robbed.”
“The Marías should have won,” another said. “Literally, who even is Alex Warren?”
Many also felt that rapper and hip-hop singer Doechii was undeserving of the Best Hip-hop award for her song “Anxiety,”which had also been a recent viral TikTok hit.
Viewers took heavy notice of the amount of TikTok-based musicians nominated, including Sombr, Lola Young, Addison Rae, Benson Boone, Jessie Murph, Alex Warren, and Ravyn Lanae.
Charli XCX, Billie Eillish, and–despite her recent controversies–Tate McRae took home their fair share of awards, along with KATSEYE, the growing girl group formed by the first-of-its-kind collaboration between an American record label (Geffen Records) and a Korean management company (HYBE).
The group–which is so popular among fans that they were even given their own reality show–has broken barriers by becoming the first K-pop group to consist of such a diverse group of members who originate from all over the world, including the U.S.A, South Korea, Cuba, Switzerland, and the Philippines. The group was given the award for Best Push Performance for their hit song “Touch”, displaying to the world the success that can be born from diversity and individuality.
In terms of K-pop, more scandals arose when all four members of BLACKPINK, the renowned girl group sensation, were pitted against each other as soloists in the Best K-pop category. Jennie Kim (Jennie) for “like JENNIE,” Lalisa Manobal (Lisa) for “Born Again,” Roseanne Park (Rosé) for “toxic till the end,” and Kim Jisoo (Jisoo) for “earthquake.” Lisa took the win for “Born Again,” but backlash began to circulate online as fans questioned the ethics of putting bandmates in competition with each other.
The girls were able to take home a win as a group, coming out on top in the Best Group category out of a whopping sixteen groups nominated. The voting bracket for this category was the only one made public so that viewers could tune in online to witness live how the votes were progressing.
BLACKPINK dominated seven alternative bands, two American pop bands, two latin pop bands, and four K-pop groups, beating the first runner-up, Stray Kids, by only around 4%.
From start to finish, the VMAs reminded us that music isn’t just entertainment–it’s culture in motion.
