Taylor Swift and Beyoncé will go head-to-head for most wins at the MTV Video Music Awards

Taylor or Beyoncé? Swifties or the Beyhive? Eras or Cowboy Carter?

Whichever side of the fence you’re on, the nominations for the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) have, deliciously, thrown up one of the most intriguing head-to-heads in music-awards-show history, with Taylor Swift squaring up to Beyoncé for the right to become the sole owner of the record for the most wins at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Both ladies were inseparable on 30 “Moon person” statues at the conclusion of the 2024 ceremony, with Swift alone boosting her tally by an incredible 16 awards at the last two editions of the glitzy shindig alone.

Where does she keep them all, I wonder?

This time round, as if one of Hollywood’s finest script-writer’s had planned it all along, both women are nominated just once – appropriately enough, both in one of the biggest categories of them all: Artist of the Year.

Neither Swift nor Beyoncé have released a new album in the qualifying period for the 2025 nominations, but no matter. Both have wrapped up monstrously huge world tours (Taylor’s Eras, the highest-grossing music tour of all time, and Queen Bey’s Cowboy Carter, the highest-grossing country tour on record), and both contenders will be desperate to secure a 31st award – and some all-important bragging rights – at the forthcoming ceremony.   

Naturally, they face stiff competition for Artist of the Year, with Bad Bunny, The Weeknd (both picking up a male-record third category nod), Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga and country megastar Morgan Wallen all in the running for the prize.

None of these artists, however, would be able to provide the sort of fairytale ending that this female-fronted 30-all drama demands.

Can Taylor complete a consecutive hat-trick of Artist of the Year wins, or will Beyoncé sneak ahead in the race between the VMAs’ “II Most Wanted”? You’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out…

MTV’s showpiece event will return to the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, USA, on 7 September, and here we take a whistlestop tour of the other main categories to see who else could be writing the headlines next month.

First-time winners will be crowned in two brand-new categories this year: the shortlist for Best Pop Artist features Justin Bieber as the sole male contender, alongside the likes of Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter and Tate McRae, while Best Country brings together some of Nashville’s brightest lights, including Chris Stapleton (“Think I’m in Love with You”), Jelly Roll (“Liar”), Megan Moroney (“Am I Okay?”) and the ubiquitous Wallen (“Smile”).

Lady Gaga’s unrivalled 12 nominations include Video of the Year and Song of the Year – both for “Die with a Smile”, her collaboration with 11-time nominee Bruno Mars. In the latter category, where female artists are currently on a five-year winning streak, either Gaga or Billie Eilish (“Birds of a Feather”) could make history as the first two-time Song of the Year winners.

Meanwhile, Mars’ dual Song of the Year nods (“Die with a Smile” and “APT.”, that infectious bop featuring BLACKPINK star Rosé) are his record-equalling third and record-setting fourth nominations in the prestigious category since it was first presented in 2018.

With 10 nominations, Kendrick Lamar will have his eyes primarily focused on the top award: Video of the Year. His contender is the diss track “Not Like Us”, originally released in May 2024 at the height of his much-publicized war of words (and lyrics) with fellow rapper Drake.

A third Video of the Year win for Lamar would shatter a tie with “Rap God” Eminem as the most decorated male artist and take him one step closer to the overall category champion – Taylor Swift (unsurprisingly) and her fine collection of five awards (for “Bad Blood”, “You Need to Calm Down”, “All Too Well: The Short Film”, “Anti-Hero” and “Fortnight”).   

Elsewhere, Ariana Grande has picked up her eighth Best Pop Video nomination (for “Brighter Days Ahead”), besting Britney Spears’ seven nods in 1999-2011.

With five Video of the Year and an unprecedented five Artist of the Year nominations (2017-19, 2021 and 2024) to her name, Grande is once again heavily represented at the VMAs in 2025 after her starring role in Brighter Days Ahead, a short film co-written and co-directed by the Wicked star which was released in support of her seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine. She’s up for seven awards this time round, including Video of the Year, Best Long Form Video, Best Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects – all for Brighter Days Ahead.

Drake extends his record for the most nominations for Best Hip-Hop Video to 15, thanks to “Nokia”, with the Canadian rapper and Eminem (shortlisted for both “Somebody Save Me” and “Murdergram Deux”) vying to break their male-artist deadlock (three wins apiece) in pursuit of Nicki Minaj’s all-comers’ record of five wins.

SZA (“Drive”) and The Weeknd (“Timeless”) are both seeking an unrivalled third Best R&B Video trophy, while the Best K-pop category gives Stray Kids (“Chk Chk Boom”) a record-equalling fourth nomination and BLACKPINK’s Lisa (“Born Again”) an opportunity to match the three wins of BTS (2019-21), following her success with debut solo single “Lalisa” in 2022 and “Rockstar” in 2024.

In fact, it’s something of a BLACKPINK reunion for Best K-pop, with Jennie (“Like Jennie”), Jisoo (“Earthquake”) and Rosé (“Toxic Till the End”) making up the numbers alongside girl group Aespa and BTS alumnus Jimin.

The four most-nominated Best Latin artists in VMAs history, J Balvin (9), Bad Bunny (9), Karol G (8) and Shakira (7), are all back for more in 2025, with Colombia’s J Balvin – nominated for his track “Rio” – level with Brazil’s Anitta on three category gongs ahead of the latest edition of the VMAs.

And it promises to be a memorable night for Linkin Park, reincarnated with Emily Armstrong on lead vocals and a chart-topping comeback album under their belts (From Zero), who are set to equal Aerosmith’s record of four Best Rock Video wins, having equalled Foo Fighters’ record 10 nominations.

If Linkin Park’s feisty single “The Emptiness Machine” takes them to the winners’ podium, it will provide a welcome shot in the arm for melodic heavy rock in a line-up that also includes Evanescence (“Afterlife”) and Twenty One Pilots (“The Contract”).

All of the fan-voted categories opened on 5 August, and the winners will be announced in New York on 7 September.

The 2025 MTV Video Music Awards – the 42nd edition of the show since 1984 – will be broadcast live on MTV and CBS, and will also be available to stream on Paramount+.

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