Inactive Taylor Swift still nominated for Artist of the Year at MTV Video Music Awards

Taylor Swift - Ảnh 1. — Lady Gaga leads 2025 VMAs nominations - Photo: AFP

The 2025 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) announced their nominees on the evening of August 5. The awards ceremony will air on September 7 on CBS and MTV, live from the UBS Arena in New York.

Lady Gaga leads VMAs nominations

Lady Gaga is the most promising candidate at this year's MTV Video Music Awards. With a total of 12 nominations, she leads the pack thanks to her impressive visuals in the music video Abracadabra from the album Mayhem and her hit collaboration Die With a Smile with Bruno Mars.

The artist who has won 18 VMAs in the past continues to be named in major categories such as Video of the Year, Artist of the Year, Best Album, and many other technical nominations. This is also the third time Lady Gaga has become the artist with the most nominations at the VMAs, after 2010 and 2020.

Taylor Swift - Ảnh 2. — Die With a Smile is one of the most outstanding songs at this year's VMAs - Photo: Hybebeast

Right behind her is Bruno Mars with 11 nominations thanks to his performance in Die With a Smile, Kendrick Lamar with 10 nominations, Sabrina Carpenter and Rosé (BlackPink) each received 8 nominations, while Ariana Grande and The Weeknd both received 7 nominations. Billie Eilish has 6 nominations, while Charli XCX won 5.

Six other artists received four nominations, including Bad Bunny, Doechii, Jelly Roll, Ed Sheeran, Tate McRae, and Miley Cyrus. CBS has high hopes for this star-studded lineup to perform at the awards ceremony.

Taylor Swift - Ảnh 3. — Taylor Swift and Beyoncé "hold hands" on the Artist of the Year list despite not releasing many MVs last year - Photo: REUTERS

Despite not releasing many music videos this year, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé - two familiar faces at the VMAs - are still nominated for Artist of the Year, a category not tied to any specific music video.

While Beyoncé set a record with the highest-grossing country music tour in history, Taylor Swift has been largely inactive over the past year.

Her continued strong influence on music and social media platforms is said to be the reason she maintains her position in one of the most important categories of the award ceremony.

BlackPink members compete in a category

Besides Bruno Mars' 11 nominations, Rosé is not far behind when receiving her first 8 nominations as a solo artist.

In a video posted to Instagram Stories, she shared: "I just found out I got 8 nominations at the VMAs. I'm completely shocked and don't know what to say. I'm literally speechless! It's been a crazy day! What is going on?!".

Along with that, the female idol also shared a screenshot of her nominations and wrote over it: "waaaahhh???" expressing her surprise and overwhelming happiness.

Taylor Swift - Ảnh 4. — APT. by Rosé and Bruno Mars is just as explosive as Die With a Smile - Photo: Vogue

Rosé is nominated in 7 categories with her hit APT. with Bruno Mars - the song that reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 - including: Video of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Collaboration, Best Pop Artist, Best Director, Best Art Design, Best Visual Effects.

In addition, the song Toxic Til the End - the third single from her debut solo album Rosie - helped her win another Best K-pop nomination.

Not only Rosé, other members of BlackPink were also honored: Jennie with like JENNIE, JISOO with earthquake and Lisa with the collaboration song with Doja Cat and RAYE called Born Again - all appeared in the Best K-pop category.