Key nominees Lady Gaga, Latin Icon Award winner Ricky Martin, Virus Video Breakout Sombre and Conan Gray showed off MTV’s commitment to balancing veterans and startups during the 2025 VMA.
Live broadcast from UBS Arena in New York on September 7th, the show’s 41st incarnation recruited a talented Cavalcade to perform in between the Moon Man’s trophy presentations.
From Best New Artist nominated Alex Warren (“Normal”) and Sombre (“Back to Friends”), to Starlet and Best Album winner Sabrina Carpenter (“Short N’Sweet”), to one of the biggest Latin prize winners at VMA History J Balvin (“Zun Zun”), the stage rarely lacked a fierce performance.
This is a cruel and honest view of every performance:
Conan Gray, “Vodka Cranberry”
The most dramatic of the newcomer crops, styled like “Romeo + Juliet” in a Velvet cape, lamenting the loss of Velbondi’s wave-warming shirt and curled previous charm, lamented the loss of actor Corey Vogermanis, who is lying on a bed of flowers.
Gray approached the stage like a veteran pro when his band sang a dreamlike “Vodka Cranberry” ballad, interrupted by a voice dressed in white.
To complete the sequence, Gray returned to his love and touched lightly before drinking potions and joining forever.
J Balvin and Justin Quills, Renee Tavares, DJ Snake, “Zun Zun”, “nienta”
The Legateon star raised the neon of his set, using a huge, lit boombox as the backdrop as Tavares and Quills leaned against the “Zun Zun” ditch, filling the gap between Tavares and Quills’s full trio.
The neon festival quickly became blank for “Noventa,” with DJ Snake leading the lead with Balvin jumping on his oversized boots, with dancers spinning on the floor of the stage, and Balvin leading his arms with seductive songs around.
DJ Snake abandoned the altar to run a catwalk with Balvin with laser haze as the pair concluded their whimsical presentation by shaking their hips and slapping their hands with ring cider.
Sombr, “Back to Friends”, ’12-12′
The buzzy virus star quickly showed his presence and pity as he sang from inside the photo booth before making his way to the stage decorated like a rehearsal spade refilled with poster-covered walls and Marshall amps.
Sombr’s gentle, pulse pop has a more organic vibe than many of his plastic peers, but his sound engineers might want to turn down the “back to friend” and “12-12” echo effects.
Alex Warren, “Eternal”, “Normal”
One of this year’s breakout stars, Warren opened two track performances on the drum line, introducing “Eternal” to “normal” follow-up. The song brought to life as a marching band surrounded him on stage, bringing the song to life as Warren seamlessly transitioned into the forest scene where dancers and ferns live.
Warren has a distinctive voice. He used it to belt “normal” as a god’s background, with the glowing clouds and mud of the sun behind him. The percussion and choir pulsed the ballads, and the elegant Warren immediately applauded for the singer at the end of the song.
At least, I know that one of the most subdued hits of the year can shine when brushed with a more vibrant brush.
Lady Gaga, “Abracadabra,” “The Dead Dance”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahs1lcir63q
Fans knew something was different when the coveted Artist of the Year Award was presented within the first 30 minutes of the broadcast. Winner Lady Gaga was able to give a thoughtful speech before returning to Manhattan to give her final show at Madison Square Garden.
For her performance about an hour later, Gaga returned to the video from MSG, returning to the middle of the red and black motifs that marked the opening of her Mayhemball tour.
“Look your legs up, MTV!” she cried, perching on the red cage, her hair piling up like giant Mickey Mouse ears.
She was soul-spinned with the vibrant rendition of “Abracadabra” as her team of dancers flocked through the stage and pushed everything from one corner to the other.
Showing what she’s surprisingly easy to do, Gaga sank into a curtain cage that looks like Alice had entered Wonderland and landed on base in a faint dress for her first live performance of “The Dead Dance.”
Her fun, creepy new single was accompanied by a dance routine that reminded me of a “thriller.”
Gaga finished his performance like an exhausted, rolled-up doll and was physically recapped, but never mentally.
Mariah Carey, Medley
From the opening notes of “Sugar Sweet,” Carrie experienced a recurring microphone issue during the medley as the winner of this year’s Video Vanguard Awards.
Carrie never looked comfortable when whitened along her silky robe with feather cuffs.
She was tied to the game by “fantasy” and “honey” hip-hop bounces, but now she wore gold sparkling leotards and matching boots, but Carrie was distracted even if she was acting during her “obsession.”
She carted neatly to shake hands with the fans in the front row as the dancers snapped their fingers around her and gave her the best diva look before stepping into the front of the string instrument to “we belong together.” However, I heard some of Carrie’s patented multi-octave scales, but she seemed out of sync all along.
Malone and jelly rolls post “Loser”
The mates are still circling their gloves on the big butt stadium tour and are shining for the VMA from Germany for the performance of the “loser” .
The prominent slide guitar drove the optimistic anthem for “The Outcast and the Sinners,” with slim-down jelly rolls filming the second verse and walking by him on the catwalk of the stadium stage.
Each singer has a unique style that works with simplicity. And when Post Malone threw his arm around Jerry Roll’s shoulder, it was nothing more than a good vibration for a live performance that enjoyed its waste.
Sabrina Carpenter, “Tears”
And in VMA’s debut on CBS, she takes Sabrina Carpenter with her to absorb one of the most explicit songs on her new album, “Man’s Best Friend.”
Ascending through a manhole in the middle of a dark New York alley where colorful characters from Drag Queens and Lower Manhattan live, the blonde carpenter sank into her Duffy Meat sister’s routine. As she caroused the stage with black tights and a golden jacket, Carpenter stoked her sweet tone in the suggestive lyrics, stopping her tone in the joy of Cockett to whisper her thoughts on the payphone.
Carpenter’s superpower is joking and spreading under the shower she soaked her by finishing her performance with mild stupidity in “Flashdance” so if you know, you know.
Busta Rhymes Medley
When Busta Rhymes was announced as the first recipient of the Rock The Bells Visionary Award at the VMA, anyone who discussed his choice should listen to the “Ya Neck” of about seven seconds and marvel at the speed at which he spins his delivery head.
Along with his sidekick DJ scratch and rap princess glorira (all covered in red and gold), Busta introduced fragments of “Gimme More Some Some Sule,” “My Eyes,” “Touch It,” “Touch It,” “Pass the Courvoisier Part II,” and “Scenario,” “Touch It,” “Touch It,” and “Pass Your Hands.”
Busta also received assistance from Papus and Joiner Lucas. Everyone shared a seamless trade-off with lyrical wordplay, and Busta was swept across between Bell’s trademark dichotomy.
Tate McRae, “What do you do?, ‘Sports Cars’
Basically in her white underwear, her baby doll voice was perfectly processed, and McRae united from the words, “What do you do?” Acrobatic dance before accepting her true talent.
Surrounded by a crew of male dancers from Speedo-Clad, McRae took a walk around the stage as her male Paramours cart wheeled to fight for her affection.
I don’t know if I missed the symbolism of the sandbox that housed McRae, but it doesn’t seem to matter that the men and her pack of female dancers who exploded into clusters of movement during the “sports car” ran through a fierce performance, uh, amusing, amusing.
Ricky Martin Medily
Ricky Martin reminded him of being an international icon for decades in around 30 seconds before his enthusiastic speech, which won the first Latin Icon Award.
Never before, he swung his unstoppable hips through his timeless “Livin’ La Vida Loca” with his black outfit and Stark’s white blazer, Martin, sports hair and goat beard.
Martin’s energy on stage has always been a Skyrocket, and his performance skills have not been imitated. His voice took some beats to calm him down, but who won’t be captivated by Martin’s fun skip, knee bend, wink, grin?
His bilingual set also included “Vente Pa’Ca”, “Maria” and “La Copa de la Vida.” All of this was performed by Martin’s tattooed biceps running across the stage.
“Tonight is the night we celebrate,” he sang in “Vida,” and was completely enveloped in the message.
Doja cat, “jealous type”
He could have beaten Powerball more than over/under Kenny G’s over/under, the first performer in the VMA.
His tenor saxophone was merely an appetizer for Doja Cat, who had the melody of “Songbird” involving Ageless Grace, and slipped in like a caterpillar, as he pulled down the sofa for the dance-heavy rendition of her latest single, “Jere Type.”
Paula Abdul’s tint colored the song, as if it had become sashay across the stage with feathery vocals. Neon lights and checkerboard stages added to the song’s ’80s vibe, but the musicians playing keyters with hair tasted, solidifying the decade’s influence on Doja’s sound.
The performance was more dance than music, but Doja Cat provided enough visual Catnip for the former, leaving me almost forgetting the song.
