The VMAs are an annual award show to honor the best music videos in the recording industry. First established in 1984, the ceremony has grown into a major pop culture event known for iconic live performances, with category winners receiving a statuette of an astronaut planting an MTV flag on the moon, called a Moonperson. This year, hosted by Snoop Dogg, the VMAs aired live Sunday night on CBS. Here is the full list of the night’s winners for all of the categories below:
Video of the Year Winner: Taylor Swift for “The Fate of Ophelia”
Artist of the Year Winner: Madonna
Song of the Year Winner: BTS for “Swim”
Best New Artist Winner: Sienna Spiro
Best Collaboration Winner: Madonna & Sabrina Carpenter for “Bring Your Love”
Best Pop Winner: LISA for “Dream” feat. Kentaro Sakaguchi
Best Hip-Hop Winner: Cardi B feat. Kehlani for “Safe”
Best R&B Winner: Bruno Mars for “I Just Might”
Best Alternative Winner: Olivia Rodrigo for “the cure”
Best Dance Winner: Madonna for “Confessions II – The Film”
Best Latin Winner: Bad Bunny for “NUEVAYoL”
Best K-Pop Winner: BTS for “SWIM”
Best Country Winner: Ella Langley for “Choosin’ Texas”
Best Direction Winner: Taylor Swift for “Opalite”
Best Art Direction Winner: PinkPantheress for “Stateside + Zara Larsson
Best Cinematography Winner: Madonna for “Confessions II – The Film”
Best Editing Winner: Sabrina Carpenter for “House Tour”
Best Choreography Winner: Madonna for “Confessions II – The Film”
Best Visual Effects Winner: Ariana Grande for “hate that i made you love me”
Best Group Winner: BTS
Best Long Form Video Winner: Madonna for Confessions II – The Film
Best Album Winner: Madonna for Confessions II
Song of Summer Winner: Ariana Grande for “Hate That I Made You Love Me” – Republic Records
Madonna came into the VMAs as the night’s leading nominee, with 13 nods, winning 7 (out of the 13 nominations) and absolutely wiping the award show clean, leaving a dominant year at the VMAs as the night’s clear big winner. Taylor Swift (who has won 33 Moon Persons, now officially passing Beyoncé for the most ever in history) was tied for second on the leaderboard with 3 wins with BTS for the night.
I am a person who has always been critical of award shows of any kind, as I always feel like they are glorified popularity contests. In which I am not saying popular artists can’t make great and amazing art, but award shows consistently value numbers over anything else, which is where my personal dislike of award shows majorly stems from. I personally think SS26 by Charli xcx was snubbed for Pop song of the year as well as GENER8ION – “STORM starring Yung Lean for best direction, but overall the VMAs were a great show in terms of an award show with some amazing performances and honors throughout the night.
