This year, the 41st annual Video Music Awards was held on Sept. 7. The show was hosted by LL Cool J. The VMAs honor the best music videos and songs released between June 20, 2024 and June 18, 2025.
There are quite a few different categories artists can be nominated for, based on genre and popularity. A few examples are Video of the Year, Artist of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Albums and Song of the Summer. The majority of the awards are voted on publicly but there are a few that are voted on by industry professionals.
As someone who listens to music a lot, I have been following along with the VMA buildup for a while. A lot of songs and artists I listen to were nominated for various awards so I was looking forward to this year’s show. The outcome of many of the categories was expected but there were a few winners I was a little surprised by.
ARTIST OF THE YEAR: The Artist of the Year nominations did not surprise me that much: Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen and The Weeknd. However, the winner of this category did surprise me a little. Lady Gaga, an artist who recently released her album “Mayhem” on March 7, 2025, won. Out of all the nominees, I think she was the most deserving of it for this past year. She released an album with multiple viral songs as well as performing on a very successful tour. This surprised me because I assumed Taylor Swift was going to win since she is so popular. I personally disagreed with that potential outcome due to the fact she has not been hugely prevalent in the music scene. I am glad another artist was recognized for their music contributions this year and I truly think Lady Gaga earned it.
BEST NEW ARTIST: The Best New Artist nominees were mostly unknown to me. I knew Alex Warren and Lola Young based on their viral songs and I listened to multiple sombr and Gigi Perez songs after hearing clips of them. I had never heard of Ella Langley or The Marias before seeing the nominations. I went and listened to the most popular songs from each of them and had already made up my prediction for the winner: sombr. He had numerous songs go viral and seems to be popular on social media as well as within my circle of friends. I was pretty shocked when he was beaten by Alex Warren. I was mainly confused by that win because Warren only had one song that I had heard and I didn’t like it all that much. I am happy sombr got recognition through the Best Alternative category, but I am disappointed on his behalf.
SONG OF THE SUMMER: This category is very subjective, it has been every year. For me, the winning song: “Just Keep Watching” was truly one of my songs of the summer. I first heard it when I was at Nationals for dance. I was very quickly interested in listening to more of the song and added it to my playlist. Despite how much I enjoyed and played this song, I hadn’t heard anyone else talk about it. I would call this my ‘song of the summer’ but I don’t know if it earned the title for the majority of the population. It must have, since it received the most votes, but I understand the backlash and confusion from other viewers. Some people say that the winning song should have been a more viral and well-known song. I think this opinion is valid, as the idea of ‘song of the summer’ implies that it would be the most popular song from that summer.
Overall, I really enjoyed this year’s VMA show. The performances were entertaining, the speeches were heartfelt and many of the winners were deserved.
