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Rema, Asake, Tems, and Ayra Starr get 2025 VMA nominations

Nigerian superstars Rema, Wizkid, Tems, and Asake are all nominated for the Best Afrobeats category alongside South African star Tyla and Ghanaian singer Moliy. Also nominated is Burna Boy, whose single ‘Higher’ earned the nod for the Best Video for Change, and Ayra Starr, who earned a nomination for Best Push Performance for ‘Last Heartbreak Song’ featuring Giveon.

Lady Gaga leads this year with 12 nominations, thanks to the success of her singles ‘Die With A Smile’, ‘Mayhem’, and ‘Abracadabra’. Bruno Mars is the second most nominated artist with 11 nods, boosted by his appearance on Lady Gaga’s ‘Abracadabra’.

Rapper Kendrick Lamar is the third most nominated artist with 10 nods garnered from his album ‘GNX’ and hit single ‘Not Like Us’. The 2025 VMAs will take place on September 7, 2025.

Video of the Year
Ariana Grande – Brighter Days Ahead
Billie Eilish – Birds of a Feather
Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – Die With a Smile
Rosé & Bruno Mars – Apt.
Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild
The Weeknd & Playboi Carti – Timeless

Artist of the Year
Bad Bunny
Beyoncé
Kendrick Lamar
Lady Gaga
Morgan Wallen
Taylor Swift
The Weeknd

Song of the Year
Alex Warren – Ordinary
Billie Eilish – Birds of a Feather
Doechii – Anxiety
Ed Sheeran – Sapphire
Gracie Abrams – I Love You, I’m Sorry
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – Die With a Smile
Lorde – What Was That
Rosé & Bruno Mars – Apt.
Tate McRae – Sports Car
The Weeknd & Playboi Carti – Timeless

Best New Artist
Alex Warren
Ella Langley
Gigi Perez
Lola Young
Sombr
The Marías

Best Pop Artist
Ariana Grande
Charli XCX
Justin Bieber
Lorde
Miley Cyrus
Sabrina Carpenter
Tate McRae

MTV Push Performance of the Year, Presented by Bacardí® Rum
Ayra Starr – Last Heartbreak Song
Damiano David – Next Summer
Dasha – Bye Bye Bye
Gigi Perez – Sailor Song
Jordan Adetunji – Kehlani
Katseye – Touch
Lay Bankz – Graveyard
Leon Thomas – Yes It Is
Livingston – Shadow
Mark Ambor – Belong Together
Role Model – Sally, When the Wine Runs Out
Shaboozey – A Bar Song (Tipsy)

Best Collaboration, Presented by Under Armour
Bailey Zimmerman & Luke Combs – Backup Plan (Stagecoach Official Music Video)
Kendrick Lamar & SZA – Luther
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – Die With a Smile
Post Malone Featuring Blake Shelton – Pour Me a Drink
Rosé & Bruno Mars – Apt.
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco – Sunset Blvd

Best Pop
Alex Warren – Ordinary
Ariana Grande – Brighter Days Ahead
Ed Sheeran – Sapphire
Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars – Die With a Smile
Rosé & Bruno Mars – Apt.
Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Best Hip-Hop
Doechii – Anxiety
Drake – Nokia
Eminem Featuring Jelly Roll – Somebody Save Me
Glorilla Featuring Sexyy Red – Whatchu Kno About Me
Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
LL Cool J Featuring Eminem – Murdergram Deux
Travis Scott – 4×4

Best R&B
Chris Brown – Residuals
Leon Thomas & Freddie Gibbs – Mutt (Remix)
Mariah Carey – Type Dangerous
PartyNextDoor – No Chill
Summer Walker – Heart of a Woman
SZA – Drive
The Weeknd & Playboi Carti – Timeless

Best Alternative
Gigi Perez – Sailor Song
Imagine Dragons – Wake Up
Lola Young – Messy
MGK & Jelly Roll – Lonely Road
Sombr – Back to Friends
The Marías – Back to Me

Best Rock
Coldplay – All My Love
Evanescence – Afterlife (From the Netflix Series “Devil May Cry”)
Green Day – One Eyed Bastard
Lenny Kravitz – Honey
Linkin Park – The Emptiness Machine
Twenty One Pilots – The Contract

Best Latin
Bad Bunny – Baile Inolvidable
J Balvin – Rio
Karol G – Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido
Peso Pluma – La Patrulla
Rauw Alejandro & Romeo Santos – Khé?
Shakira – Soltera

Best K-Pop
Aespa – Whiplash
Jennie – Like Jennie
Jimin – Who
Jisoo – Earthquake
Lisa Featuring Doja Cat & Raye – Born Again
Stray Kids – Chk Chk Boom
Rosé – Toxic Till the End

Best Afrobeats
Asake & Travis Scott – Active
Burna Boy Featuring Travis Scott – TaTaTa
Moliy, Silent Addy, Skillibeng & Shenseea – Shake It to the Max (Fly) (Remix)
Rema – Baby (Is It A Crime)
Tems Featuring Asake – Get It Right
Tyla – Push 2 Start
Wizkid Featuring Brent Faiyaz – Piece of My Heart

Best Country

Chris Stapleton – Think I’m in Love With You
Cody Johnson & Carrie Underwood – I’m Gonna Love You
Jelly Roll – Liar
Lainey Wilson – 4x4xU
Megan Moroney – Am I Okay?
Morgan Wallen – Smile

Best Album
Bad Bunny – Debí Tirar Más Fotos
Kendrick Lamar – GNX
Lady Gaga – Mayhem
Morgan Wallen – I’m the Problem
Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet
The Weeknd – Hurry Up Tomorrow

Best Long Form Video
Ariana Grande – Brighter Days Ahead
Bad Bunny – Debí Tirar Más Fotos (Short Film)
Damiano David – Funny Little Stories
Mac Miller – Balloonerism
Miley Cyrus – Something Beautiful
The Weeknd – Hurry Up Tomorrow

Video for Good
Burna Boy – Higher
Charli XCX – Guess Featuring Billie Eilish
Doechii – Anxiety
Eminem Featuring Jelly Roll – Somebody Save Me
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco – Younger and Hotter Than Me
Zach Hood Featuring Sasha Alex Sloan – Sleepwalking

Best Direction
Ariana Grande – Brighter Days Ahead
Charli XCX – Guess Featuring Billie Eilish
Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
Rosé & Bruno Mars – Apt.
Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Best Art Direction
Charli XCX – Guess Featuring Billie Eilish
Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
Lorde – Man of the Year
Miley Cyrus – End of the World
Rosé & Bruno Mars – Apt.

Best Cinematography
Ariana Grande – Brighter Days Ahead
Ed Sheeran – Sapphire
Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
Miley Cyrus – Easy Lover
Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild

Best Editing
Charli XCX – Guess Featuring Billie Eilish
Ed Sheeran – Sapphire
Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild
Tate McRae – Just Keep Watching (From F1® the Movie)

Best Choreography
Doechii – Anxiety
FKA twigs – Eusexua
Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us
Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
Tyla – Push 2 Start
Zara Larsson – Pretty Ugly

Best Visual Effects
Ariana Grande – Brighter Days Ahead
Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
Rosé & Bruno Mars – Apt.
Sabrina Carpenter – Manchild
Tate McRae – Just Keep Watching (From F1® the Movie)
The Weeknd – Hurry Up Tomorrow

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Celebs

Nollywood Veteran Hanks Anuku captured roaming the streets of Abuja

A viral video showing veteran Nollywood actor Hanks Anuku on a roadside in Abuja has sparked concern among Nigerians on social media. The footage, believed to have been recorded recently, shows the 64-year-old actor appearing distressed, holding a disposable cup and seemingly talking to himself. Some social media users speculated that he may have been under the influence of alcohol, though this remains unconfirmed.

​Sharing the clip online, eyewitnesses appealed for support, writing:

​“Please Nigerians, Nollywood actor Hanks Anuku needs our help. Please repost and share so he can get help.”
The video has generated mixed reactions, with some expressing concern for the actor’s well-being, while others urged the public not to jump to conclusions.

One user said, “He made his choice. Donate for him and he will still visit his drugs and drinks. Best advice na the one wey person advice himself.”

Several fans called on his fellow actors and the Nigerian Actors Guild to provide the actor with the necessary medical and financial support.\

Anuku previously made headlines in November 2022 after a viral video showed him dressed in worn-out clothing while wandering the streets, prompting widespread speculation about his mental health. The actor later dismissed claims that he was battling mental illness. However, this latest video shows concerns over the state of his mental health and well-being.

​During his time in Nollywood, Hanks Anuku was known for playing the archetypal bad-boy role, which earned him fame through his performances in movies like ‘The Senator.’ The actor’s current situation sheds light on the issues confronting movie stars and other celebrities who often battle with depression and financial crisis after leaving the limelight.

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Entertainment

My mum is my God, my dad is my God’ — 9ice

Singer 9ice has sparked debate after saying his parents are his “God” and rejecting other deities, months after revealing he has practised as a Babalawo for 18 years.

9ice is once again at the centre of online debate after declaring that his parents, not any deity, occupy the highest spiritual place in his life.

In a video posted to his Instagram on Sunday, the artist said: “Today I’ll tell you something I don’t really talk about, but I’ll talk today. I love my mum, I love my dad, my god is my mum, my father is my god.” He went further in the comments, clarifying that the reverence typically reserved for an unseen God should instead be directed at one’s parents.

The singer didn’t stop there. “I don’t believe in inferior Gods,” he added, distancing himself from the worship of any other spiritual beings and insisting his belief system doesn’t fit neatly into traditional religious structures.

Predictably, the internet had thoughts, and most of them weren’t kind. A large chunk of reactions accused him of being under the influence of something, with many dismissing the statement outright rather than engaging with it.

This isn’t 9ice’s first brush with this kind of controversy, and that’s part of why the latest clip spread as fast as it did. Back in April, he went viral for a different but related rant, this time aimed squarely at Nigeria’s religious culture.

“You’ll leave Nigeria and go to Mecca to go and lick rock all in the name of Kabba,” he said then, arguing that decades of national prayer hadn’t translated into national progress. He compared Nigeria’s work ethic unfavourably to London’s, joking that between church on Sunday, Bible study on Wednesday and vigil on Friday, “when would you work?”

Some Nigerians found merit in his earlier point about productivity versus performative religiosity. Far fewer have extended that same patience to his spiritual claims, with both the Babalawo reveal and now this parental-deity comparison landing mostly as fodder for mockery rather than genuine reflection.

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Celebs

“I can never marry a Nigerian” — DJ Cuppy

DJ Cuppy has decided against marrying a Nigerian man, and she has a reason that says as much about the unique pressures of dating as a billionaire’s daughter as it does about the men involved.

Speaking in a resurfaced interview, the DJ and media personality said her last Nigerian partner spent more energy trying to secure a meeting with her father, business mogul Femi Otedola, than actually pursuing her.

“I can never marry a Nigerian. The last Nigerian I dated was already asking me when he could meet my dad. I don’t even think they actually like me,” she said.

The comment was received well because it touched something many high-profile women have spoken about privately, which is the difficulty of knowing whether interest is genuine or transactional when your last name opens doors that most people spend careers trying to reach.

Cuppy added that her father has no strong preference on nationality, only that she eventually gets married. She also used the moment to express happiness about her sister Temi Otedola’s relationship with star Mr Eazi.

Cuppy’s romantic history has rarely been quiet. Her most high-profile relationship was with British boxer Ryan Taylor, which moved quickly from a 2022 engagement to a 2023 breakup and a series of very public exchanges in the years that followed.

In early 2024, Cuppy posted something her exes interpreted as a taunt, suggesting they could not afford to be where she was without her help. Taylor responded in the comments with: “Neither can you.”

The back-and-forth did not stop there. In 2025, Taylor appeared on a podcast and alleged that Cuppy had expressed discomfort around Nigerians, claiming she discouraged him from hiring Nigerian staff and was uncomfortable when Nigerian fans approached her in public.

That allegation, largely unaddressed at the time, now circles back with some irony given her latest comments.

Before Taylor, Cuppy was publicly linked to Davido’s manager Asa Asika and Nigerian footballer Victor Anichebe.

She has since said she prefers low-key, non-celebrity partners, someone with a regular job, away from the spotlight that has followed most of her previous relationships.

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