Mariah Carey to receive VMAs Video Vanguard Award in 2025

Mariah Carey will receive the MTV Video Music Awards Video Vanguard Award in 2025, and she will perform a medley of her greatest hits at the ceremony. The event, hosted by LL Cool J, will be broadcast live from UBS Arena in New York on Sunday, September 7, at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, with CBS carrying the live telecast, and MTV simulcast and Paramount streaming available in the United States. Carey’s return to the VMAs marks a full-circle moment: she will accept the award she once presented to LL Cool J in 1997 and will headline the show for the first time in two decades.

The Video Vanguard Award honors artists whose contributions have had a lasting impact on music videos and popular culture. Since the prize’s inception, the trophy has gone to a who’s who of music history, and in recent years the recipients have tended toward veteran artists who have maintained influence well into their careers. Carey’s selection places her in a line of notable recent honorees and reflects the awards’ ongoing recognition of artists whose work transcends a single hit or era. The category’s history also includes landmark moments from the first VMAs in 1984, when early honorees set the standard for...