Mariah Carey received recognition for her iconic career at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards.
The singer, 56, was honored with the Video Vanguard Award during the Sunday, September 7, ceremony at UBS Arena in New York.
“Thank you so much MTV for giving me the Vanguard Award,” she said after receiving the trophy from presenter Ariana Grande. “I can’t believe I’m getting my first VMA tonight. I just have one question. What in the Sam Hill were you waiting for? I’m kidding. I love your MTV. I love you so much.”
Prior to her speech, Carey performed a career-spanning medley of her hits, including “Fantasy,” “Heartbreaker,” “Obsessed” and “It’s Like That.” After 20 years, she returned to the VMAs stage for the first time since her 2005 performance of songs from her 10th album, The Emancipation of Mimi.
“I’ve learned that music evolves, videos evolve, but the fun? That is eternal,” Carey continued in her speech. “Thank you MTV for playing my videos, and to my fans, I love you so much. And by the way, my new album Here for It All is out in two weeks.”
Carey has been nominated for nine VMAs throughout her career. The Video Vanguard Award marks her second Moonman statue. She won Best R&B for “Type Dangerous” during the pre-show earlier on Sunday.
Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for MTV
“People think she’s a diva … but she’s very serious about what it is that she does, and she’s very much concentrated and understands where she’s supposed to do,” producer Jermaine Dupri exclusively told Us Weekly on the VMAs red carpet. “I feel like sometimes diva facade makes it seem like she’s like, airy and not really paying attention, but she’s very much in intact with what’s going on. She actually acts like a rapper, if you ask me, but she won’t show y’all that part.”
Outside of the VMAs, Carey is preparing to release her first album in seven years, Here for It All, on September 26. The album’s lead single, “Type Dangerous,” debuted in June.
“Mariah is really pleased with the positive reception to her new song, ‘Type Dangerous,’” a music insider told Us Weekly later that month. “She has high hopes for her upcoming album, as does her team.”
While Carey’s Christmas music has dominated the conversation in recent years, she is ready to step back into the non-seasonal spotlight.
“She is, of course, amazed by the renewed success of ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ each year, but she wants to remind the world that she’s more than just the Queen of Christmas,” the source said. “It’s been a while since Mariah has had a new hit, but everyone around her is confident that this will be her most fruitful and successful era in over a decade.”
Stars take red carpet PDA to another level at the MTV Video Music Awards. In the early 2000s, celebrity couples including Dave Navarro and Carmen Electra, Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock, and Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson were the talk of the festivities. After exchanging vows in 2002, Lachey and Simpson attended the awards show […]
According to the insider, “working on and releasing this new music has really lit a fire under” Carey, who “has a lot in store for her Lambily.”
In July, Carey explained why fans had to wait so long for her 16th album.
“I was just getting it together,” she explained on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the time. “I would make, like, four songs and then be like, ‘We can start making an album now,’ and then I would never do it. Then I got up to, like, 10 songs, and we were basically ready with an album.”
