Ariana Grande won Video of the Year at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards for Brighter Days Ahead and made a show-stopping entrance that included four wardrobe changes and a brief onstage acknowledgement of “my therapist and gay people.”

Grande’s Brighter Days Ahead also won the award for Best Long Form Video. Accepting the Video of the Year prize, she delivered a quick thank-you that included the remark, drawing applause from the audience. The night featured an array of high-profile winners across music genres and several career honors.

Lady Gaga was named Artist of the Year, a top honor recognizing overall achievement and visibility across the eligibility period. Gaga also took home multiple creative awards, including Best Collaboration with Bruno Mars for Die With a Smile and several technical prizes tied to her Abracadabra video.

Rosé and Bruno Mars won Song of the Year for Apt., while Alex Warren was named Best New Artist. Sabrina Carpenter emerged with three awards, including Best Album for Short n’ Sweet and Best Visual Effects for her Manchild video. The group of winners spanned mainstream pop, hip-hop, rock, Latin and international categories, reflecting the ceremony’s broad slate of nominees.

Other notable winners included Coldplay, who won Best Rock for All My Love, and Doechii, who took home Best Hip-Hop for Anxiety and also won Best Choreography for the same video. Tate McRae’s Just Keep Watching (from F1® the Movie) was awarded Song of the Summer and also received Best Editing, giving McRae two Moon Persons for the evening.

The ceremony honored veteran artists as well as newer acts. Mariah Carey received the MTV Video Vanguard Award, the first VMA of her career, in recognition of her long-running influence on pop music and visual presentation. Ricky Martin was presented with the Latin Icon Award, and Busta Rhymes was honored with the Rock The Bells Visionary Award.

The broadcast included a mix of live performances, video premieres and televised moments that drew attention beyond the awards themselves. Lady Gaga’s wins spanned both artistic and technical categories, as her Abracadabra video collected awards for Best Direction and Best Art Direction. Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us won Best Cinematography.

Winners in genre and specialty categories reflected a wide range of artists and collaborators. Best Group went to Blackpink. Best Alternative was awarded to Sombr for Back to Friends. Best R&B went to Mariah Carey’s Type Dangerous, while Tems featuring Asake took home Best Afrobeats for Get It Right. Lisa’s Born Again, featuring Doja Cat and Raye, won Best K-Pop.

Several awards recognized music videos as visual statements as much as promotional tools. Charli XCX’s Guess featuring Billie Eilish won Video for Good, and Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra notched multiple trophies for its creative team. The ceremony also singled out technical achievements in art direction, editing and visual effects, underscoring the industry’s emphasis on craft in short-form film.

The VMAs have long been a stage for theatrical fashion and onstage surprises. Grande’s multiple costume changes — part of a trend of show-centric appearances that blend performance and red-carpet presentation — were among the evening’s most talked-about moments, alongside acceptance speeches and tributes to career-spanning achievements.

The awards come amid a busy year for many nominees, with releases and tours that kept several artists in the public eye. MTV’s ceremony continued its tradition of mixing established superstars with emerging talent, offering both recognition for long-running careers and visibility for breakout acts.

Producers and network partners highlighted the range of winners in post-show summaries, noting album, single and video categories that spanned language and genre. The VMAs will likely be revisited in media coverage and industry commentary for both the high-profile honors and the evening’s memorable moments onstage and off.

A full list of winners released by the network included categories across performance, creative and technical fields, reflecting the ceremony’s broad approach to contemporary music culture.