We can’t wait to see these stars shine!
BY CALYPSO LLOYD-DAVIES, IMAGE BY LILY WEST & ELIANA SHYMANSKY
The VMAs are back! We’re ready to celebrate all that music has to offer in 2025, a year filled with queer excellence. This year, MTV has introduced two new categories: Best Pop Artist and Best Country, so for all you music lovers, this is not one to miss.
LGBTQIA+ artists have been absolutely killing it this year, so here is a list of the VMAs queer nominees…
Lady Gaga
Taking the lead this year, with 12 nominations, is none other than queer icon Lady Gaga. Her hits Die With A Smile, withBruno Mars and Abracadabra took to the charts and had huge success. We also saw the release of Gaga’s seventh album, Mayhem, receiving multiple nominations, too. Seven albums later, she continues to put incredible music out into the world, and we couldn’t be happier that she has taken the lead this year.
Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish just keeps going. Her track Birds Of A Feather has been nominated for Song of the Year and Video of the Year, maintaining popularity all the way through to 2025, after the immense success of her Hit Me Hard And Soft album release in 2024. Throughout her fame, Eilish has had much speculation around her sexuality, and in 2023, she came out as queer. From then, her queer music has blossomed, specifically with songs like Lunch and Guess with artist Charli XCX.
Doechii
After her VMA wins in 2023 and 2022, Doechii is back for more, with her track Anxiety, nominated for Best Hip-Hop as well as Song of the Year. With a rapid rise to fame, Doechii has been open about her queerness and speaks on her experience as a bisexual Black woman in hip-hop. She reflects that her queer experience shapes her music, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Miley Cyrus
Miley is back, after her absence at last year’s VMAs. This year, she has received multiple nominations for her new album, Something Beautiful, to make up for it. Cyrus has been nominated for Best Pop Artist, Best Long Form Video with her Something Beautiful, Best Art Direction with her End Of The World, and for Best Cinematography for Easy Lover. I think it’s safe to say she’s had a good year.
Queer Rising Stars: Gigi Perez and Lola Young
The VMAs are bringing us some intimidatingly cool new artists this year. Doing it for the lesbians is Gigi Perez with her hit Sailor Song, a track that’s gone viral everywhere on social media, and one all about sapphic love and intimacy.Coming up next, we have Lola Young, who burst onto the scene with her hit Messy in 2024. Lola has come out publicly as queer this year, and continues to release music, with her most recent single One Thing already in the charts.
Katseye
Queer celebrities have been performing their hearts out in 2025, with Katseye being nominated for Best MTV Push Performance of the Year. From the K-pop girl group, members Megan and Lara have both come out as queer, with Megan being our third bisexual nominee. The band performed their hit song Touch and blew everyone away with their incredibly difficult choreography.
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