THE MTV VMAs are the biggest and easily the most fun night in music.
From Gaga’s infamous meat dress in 2010 to Britney dancing with a snake in 2021.
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And who can forget Kanye West storming the stage in 2009 after Taylor Swift beat Beyonce to Best Female Video… certainly not Taylor!
This year’s ceremony was broadcast live from the UBS Arena in New York with everyone from Mariah Carey to Ariana Grande in attendance.
Lady Gaga even delayed her own show at Madison Square Garden to pick up the first gong of the night – Artist of the Year.
And of course, The Sun’s Bizarre team were also on site spotted all the bits of gossip from the show you wouldn’t have seen on TV.
Here we run down what we spotted from our seat.
Sabrina’s Secret Towelling Down
Sabrina Carpenter was literally jumping for joy with her dancers after wrapping up her performance – she was so wet from dancing in the rain that at the side of the stage she was met with three members of staff handing her fluffy white towels.
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Ariana To The Rescue for Mariah Carey
Ariana Grande was forced to help Mariah ‘I don’t do stairs’ Carey down seven steps from the stage to the floor. MC already had one person helping her down but Ari also was on hand to hold her hand as she took on the seven steps
Mariah kept herself to herself
Mariah Carey swerved the carpet and VIP seats so much that some of the stars didn’t even see her as she didn’t mix – it was an in-out job.
Gaga’s High Speed Dash
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Despite rumours swirling Gaga got a chopper across to Madison Square Garden – The Sun can confirm she actually just got a car to make the trip… but it means she wasn’t on stage until almost 10pm. Some fans were watching her VMA speech from their seats in Madison Square Garden on iPads.
Gaga’s Performance Secrets
Lady Gaga gave one of the best performances of the night but it was actually filmed in five segments. Biz watched as Gaga filmed the performance on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. She did two takes of mega-hit Abracadabra and two takes of new single The Dead Dance. She then performed her whole Mayhem Ball show in full broken doll make-up that she’d worn for her VMA performance.
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Celebs Drink The Bar Dry
After Sabrina Carpenter‘s performance of Tears, an army of staff descended on the celebs in their seats with trays of wine and champers – when you’re a star the bar comes to you. We are pleased to report all drinks went from the trays. How the other half live indeed!
Tate McRae’s Red Carpet Team
Tate McRae appeared to be using the red carpet as a dry run for a wedding. She was in a sheer white dress with a long train. In order to keep it clean she had two members of staff with her holding it up at all times as if she was walking down the aisle.
Yungblud’s Drinks To Ozzy Mid Performance
Yungblud was wearing Ozzy Osbourne‘s cross necklace on stage during his tribute. When the cameras cut away to Steven Tyler he headed to the back of the stage to sip on what appeared to be whisky as he looked up at a montage video of Ozzy on the big screen. He raised his glass to the sky in respect to the rock icon.
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Red carpet name check
If you don’t know who the celeb is, no problem.
One member of staff was hired to simply hold up cards at the start of the red carpet telling waiting cameras who they were photographing. Even the big artists still had their name held up. It reminded us of arrivals at an airport.
Ricky Hangs In There
Ricky Martin kicked off his performance descending from the heavens in an open box… but we can reveal the hunky singer was awkwardly hanging high in the air for what must have felt like a very long three minutes before kicking things off.
The Livin’ La Vida Loca singer was left suspended in the dark due to an advert break and host J Balvin giving a long introduction speech.
Ricky seemed nonplussed though. He was blowing kisses and waving to fans even though the lights weren’t on him.
Despite giving one of the most high energy performances of the night Ricky only had 30 seconds to recover before collecting his award. Rather than being a clever edit, he literally was towelling himself down hurriedly before collecting his gong. What a trooper!
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Mariah’s Musician’s Secret Facetime
There’s always time for a selfie… right?
Mariah’s keyboard player thought no one could see him while he waited for Mimi to kick off her performance so decided to have a cheeky FaceTime from the stage.
He still had his phone out when Mariah kicked off her medley from the other side of the stage but had it safely tucked in his pocket by the time she made it to his section.
We can only presume he ended the call before popping the phone in his pocket.
Ari and Sabrina’s Backstage Love-in
Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter had a love-in before the awards even began.
The duo bumped into each other in the holding room just before Ari walked the red carpet and posed for pictures. Onlookers say they were laughing and joking as their entourages awkwardly waited around them like fans.
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MTV VMA 2025 – My view
EACH year we are told that awards shows are on the way out, with ratings across all shows on the slide.
But Sunday nights MTV VMAs proved that millions still care – even if they are far more sanitised events than their heyday.
Bosses managed to pull in quite literally the biggest names in music with Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Mariah Carey and Sabrina Carpenter all coming together under one roof.
So adamant was Gaga on making the show despite a schedule clash with her own gig across town that she delayed her own gig by almost two hours.
And it seems to have worked.
Overnight ratings are up from last year to just over four million – with millions more checking out performances, speeches and red carpet looks on social media.
I was lucky enough to watch the show first hand and have to admit MTV’s latest ceremony was slick, fun and packed full of A-listers.
There’s no denying they did their part for what’s billed as the funnest most wild night in music.
But I do wish the celebs would let themselves go more
While Tate McRae certainly pulled off an amazing performance with a red hot dance routine and vocals to match, the likes of Britney Spears can rest easy knowing their sets of years gone by are still unmatched.
Where was the shock value and controversy we have come to love to hate from Sunday night?
There certainly was no dancing with a live snake like Britney in 2001 or storming the stage like Kanye West did to Taylor Swift back in 2009.
Only Sabrina gave us a taste of year’s gone by, stripping down to perform soaking wet in the rain while her dancers held up signs calling for trans rights.
The stars clearly still care deeply for their gongs – and let’s be honest they all want their moment in the spotlight.
But if they want awards shows to continue for years to come in an age of social media dominance, they and their PR teams must relax the reins a little and let them have fun.
After all, any press is good press.
