Mariah Carey will receive the Video Vanguard Award and perform a career-spanning hits medley at the 2025 MTV VMAs. The show is set to air live coast-to-coast on Sunday, Sept. 7, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on CBS, simulcast on MTV and stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
Related
Carey, who famously doesn’t believe in the construct of age – but who is 56 for those of us who do – will become the oldest recipient of the award to date, surpassing Richard Lester, director of The Beatles‘ films A Hard Day’s Night and Help!. Lester was 52 when he received the award on the inaugural VMAs in 1984. (In a way, it’s more impressive that Carey is receiving the award 35 years into her career than if she had gotten it when she was in her first flush of stardom. It’s a real achievement for Carey to have sustained her star power for so many years.)
It should also be noted that the recipients of the Video Vanguard Award have been moving up in age in recent years. Jennifer Lopez, Missy Elliott and Shakira were all past 45 when they received the honor.
Carey will be the eighth consecutive recipient of the award who is a woman, following Rihanna (2016), Pink (2017), Lopez (2018), Elliott (2019), Nicki Minaj (2022), Shakira (2023) and Katy Perry (2024). (The award wasn’t presented in the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.)
Carey will return to the VMAs stage for the first time in 20 years. In 2005, she performed two smash hits – “We Belong Together” and “Shake It Off” – in a segment that also featured Jadakiss and Jermaine Dupri.
Carey presented the Vanguard Award to LL COOL J in 1997. Coincidentally, the rapper and actor is hosting this year’s VMAs, which will air from UBS Arena in New York.
Carey made her VMAs debut in 1991 with a performance of “Emotions.” In 1998, Carey and Whitney Houston opened the show in an iconic pop culture moment when the two “accidentally” wore the same dress. They then presented the first award of the night – best male video to Will Smith for “Just the Two of Us.”
MTV’s press release announcing the award refers to it as the Video Vanguard Award twice and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award once. Carey and Jackson were both signed to Sony Music labels throughout the 1990s.
Carey has amassed 19 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, from “Vision of Love” in June 1990 to “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which logged its most recent appearance at No. 1 in January 2025. That’s more No. 1 hits than any other solo artist and is just one shy of the all-time record held by The Beatles. Impressively, she co-wrote 18 of those songs.
Carey was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2022. She has been nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in each of the last two years, but has yet to receive that accolade. Such contemporaries as Houston, Janet Jackson and George Michael, who likewise weren’t rock & roll in the traditional sense, have been admitted into the Hall, so Carey is likely to make it too eventually.
Carey has had six No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, from Mariah Carey in March 1991 to E=MC2 in May 2008. She has won five Grammys, including vocal performance honors in both pop and R&B.
Carey’s 16th studio album Here for It All is set for release on Sept. 26. It includes her single “Type Dangerous,” which is nominated for a VMA for best R&B this year. If she wins, it will (amazingly) be her first VMA won in competition.
In his annual forecast of who might get this year’s Video Vanguard award, Billboard’s Andrew Unterberger pegged Carey as this year’s third-likeliest recipient (behind his top pick Miley Cyrus and runner-up pick Ed Sheeran). Unterberger wasn’t working from a finite list of nominees. Theoretically anyone could receive the honor, making it impressive that he came so close.
Said Unterberger about Carey’s chances: “Has Mariah Carey really never won the Video Vanguard award? Forget that: Mariah Carey has still never won a single Video Music Award, getting shut out to date in eight career nominations stretching back to 1996. She’s up for a ninth in September, with ‘Type Dangerous’ nominated for best R&B video, but MTV could really make this wrong right by giving Mimi the Video Vanguard for her decades-spanning career as a music video superstar. She’d be on the veteran side for the award at this point, but that didn’t stop MTV from honoring Shakira two years ago, so perhaps there’s still a chance for MC after all — and given the release of new album Here for It All later this September, now would be the time.”
Sabrina Carpenter is set to perform on the VMAs for the second year in a row. Alex Warren, Busta Rhymes, J Balvin featuring DJ Snake, Ricky Martin and sombr are also set to perform.
Busta will receive the MTV VMA Rock the Bells Visionary Award, presented by host LL COOL J (who had a hit in 1986 titled “Rock the Bells”). Martin will be honored with the inaugural Latin Icon Award.
Lady Gaga leads the nominations for the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards with 12 nods, followed closely by her “Die With a Smile” duet partner Bruno Mars, who has 11 nods. Other top contenders are Kendrick Lamar (10), ROSÉ and Carpenter (eight each), Ariana Grande and The Weeknd (seven each) and Billie Eilish (six).
This will mark the first time the show has been broadcast by CBS. It will also simulcast on MTV and stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
The 2025 MTV VMAs are executive produced by Bruce Gillmer, Den of Thieves co-founder Jesse Ignjatovic, and Barb Bialkowski. Gunpowder & Sky CEO Van Toffler is producer. Alicia Portugal is co-executive producer. Jackie Barba is executive in charge of production. Wendy Plaut is executive in charge of celebrity talent. Lisa Lauricella is executive in charge of music talent.
This marks Toffler’s return to the show following a decadelong absence.
