The spirit of Ozzy Osbourne was well and truly honoured at last night’s 2025 MTV Video Music Awards in New York.
The Black Sabbath hitmaker, who died in July aged 76, was honoured with a special medley tribute performance at the UBS Arena, which was introduced by a video message from his son Jack and his children.
Rocker Yungblud joined Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, together with Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, to perform hits including Crazy Train, Changes and Mama, I’m Coming Home.
It was a relief for Aerosmith fans to see the 77-year-old frontman back in action, after a vocal injury – which includes a fractured larynx and damaged vocal cords – marked the end of his touring days.
The Don’t Want to Miss a Thing hitmaker’s voice did manage to hit those high notes in I’m Coming Home, as he rocked out wearing a dark loose-fitted shirt and his hair down, singing the lyrics alongside 28-year-old Yungblud.
Fans raved at the scenes – which will go down in VMAs history – as @bobbyseelye92 wrote on YouTube: ‘Coolest thing to happen on VMAs in the last 25 years.’
‘Now THAT was a proper tribute,’ said @carminecaligiuri, while @patiymuchoflowcrew said: ‘EVERYTHING about this performance, Steven’s voice and spirit still giving it all, also YB pulling out all the cards, and the way you can see Steven getting emotional at the very end when he flicks his hand and covers his face with it.
‘Respect, perfect tribute, perfect soulful, fiery performance all those involved!!’
Having damaged his vocal cords during Aerosmith’s Peace Out tour in 2023, Steven has since made the odd rare appearance on stage like when he performed at the Jam for Janie Grammys Viewing Party at the beginning of February
Quickly after though, former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum shut down any thoughts of a possible musical comeback.
‘Steven sang for the first time in a year and a half,’ he said on WBAB. ‘He’s such an iconic guy.
‘He got out and sang. It was a really big moment for him because he hurt himself bad.
‘Now, is he going to tour again? No, he’s not. Because, and I explained this to people, Steven cannot put himself under the rigors of doing a full worldwide tour because there’s a lot of pressure.’
‘If you’re not a singer, you wouldn’t understand what he goes through, but he’s 77 years old and he’s a perfectionist. And if he doesn’t sing correctly, it bothers him,’ Matt continued.
Yungblud, who performed with Ozzy at the iconic Back to the Beginning night just weeks before his death, took to social media before the VMAs with a black and white photo of them together.
‘They’ve ‘asked me to pay tribute to you at the @vmas on Sunday night. I’ll try my best to do you proud Oz. Tune in from up there. I love you forever,’ he said.
Elsewhere the evening was dominated by the likes of Lady Gaga, who was named artist of the year as she collected four awards at Sunday’s ceremony.
She beat competition including Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar to the award, which she dedicated to her Little Monster fans and fiance Michael Polansky.
Sabrina Carpenter and Ariana Grande picked up three awards each on a night when the prizes were largely spread out.
Collecting the artist of the year award at Sunday’s ceremony, Lady Gaga said: ‘I cannot begin to tell you what this means to me.
‘Being an artist is an attempt to connect the souls of people all over the world. Being an artist is a discipline, a craft meant for reaching into someone’s heart, where it grows its roots, and reminding them to dream.
‘Being an artist is a responsibility to make the audience smile, dance, cry, release… It is a method of building understanding and celebrating community.’
Gaga’s victory as artist of the year means Swift and Beyonce – who were only nominated in that category – remain tied on 30 with the most VMA successes.
By contrast, Mariah Carey collected her first award with victory in the R&B award for Type Dangerous before landing a second when she was awarded the Video Vanguard award.
‘This is amazing MTV, I don’t know why it took you so long!’ she joked in a video message ahead of performing later in the show.
New achievement awards went to Ricky Martin, who performed a medley kicking off with Livin’ La Vida Loca, with the Latin icon award, and rapper Busta Rhymes, who received the Rock The Bells Visionary Award.
Accepting his award from Jessica Simpson, Martin said: ‘We just want to break boundaries, and we just want to keep music alive.’
Grande picked up the video of the year, long-form video and best pop video awards for Brighter Days Ahead, thanking her father for his cameo.
Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet was named album of the year, while she was named best pop artist and took home the visual effects award for Manchild.
Other multiple award winners were Doechii, who won the hip-hop award and choreography for Anxiety, and Tate McRae who picked up the editing award and song of the summer for Just Keep Watching from the F1 movie.
Coldplay won the rock category for All My Love with Sombr collecting the alternative award for Back To Friends and Shakira taking the Latin prize for Soltera.
Carpenter, Sombr, McRae, best new artist Alex Warren and Katseye, who won performance of the year, were among those who performed at the ceremony, while Post Malone performed from Germany alongside Jelly Roll.
The live show ended with a number of awards not presented, which were announced after it had finished on X.
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