Lady Gaga had a night to remember at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards.
Gaga, 39, was the most-awarded artist at the Sunday, September 7, ceremony, at UBS Arena in New York. With a total of four wins, the “Abracadabra” hitmaker took home the Moon Person trophies for Artist of the Year, Best Collaboration for her work with Bruno Mars on “Die With a Smile,” Best Direction and Best Art Direction.
During the pop star’s Artist of the Year acceptance speech, she gave fiancé Michael Polansky a loving shout-out, dedicating the honor to her partner.
Prior to the awards show, Gaga earned the most nominations of any artist this year. The singer landed 12 nods for Video of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Collaboration and Best Pop for her and Mars’ “Die With a Smile,” Best Direction, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Choreography and Best Visual Effects for “Abracadabra,” Best Album for Mayhem and Artist of the Year.
Despite her potential for wins in so many categories, Gaga was forced to skip some of the VMAs due to a scheduling conflict. She was performing her final Mayhem Ball concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City during the awards show but did manage to accept her Artist of the Year award in person.
While Gaga received more nods than any other artist in 2025, she was not the only top nominee at the VMAs. Mars, 39, trailed closely behind with 11 nominations, followed by Kendrick Lamar with 10, Rosé and Sabrina Carpenter with eight, Ariana Grande and The Weeknd with seven, Billie Eilish with six, Charli XCX with five and Bad Bunny, Doechii, Ed Sheeran, Jelly Roll, Miley Cyrus and Tate McRae with four.
Ahead of Sunday’s ceremony, Gaga had 18 VMA wins during her career. Her 12 nominations gave her the potential to tie Taylor Swift’s record for most VMAs in the awards show’s history since the “All Too Well” singer has 30 Moon Person trophies. Swift, 35, also had an opportunity to surpass her own goal since she was up for Artist of the Year in 2025.
Swift became the most-awarded VMAs artist ever in 2024 when she secured seven wins out of her 12 nominations. Her accolades that night included Video of the Year, Best Collaboration, Song of the Summer, Best Editing and Best Direction for “Fortnight,” Artist of the Year and Best Pop.
As for this year’s most-nominated artists, Grande already had 10 wins prior to Sunday’s awards show, while Lamar had eight, Eilish had seven, Mars had four, The Weeknd and Cyrus had three, Bad Bunny and Sheeran had two and Carpenter had one. Rosé, Charli, Doechii, Jelly Roll and McRae had yet to win a VMA before Sunday.