This is why Chappell Roan hasn’t been nominated at the 2025 VMAs

The VMA 2025 nominations are finally here, and unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you might have noticed that Chappell Roan hasn’t landed any nominations. This is why our Midwestern Princess hasn’t been nominated. 

Pop icons including Sabrina Carpenter, Ariana Grande, and Lady Gaga, who leads the way with a whopping 12 nominations at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards, have all been honoured with nods. 

Battling it out in the Best Direction category is Charli XCX with her hit “Guess” featuring Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga with “Abracadabra” and Kendrick Lamar with “Not Like Us”. 

Global girl group KATSEYE have also been honoured with a VMA 2025 nomination in the MTV Push Performance of the Year category, marking their first-ever at the event. Even Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are set to battle it out yet again in a history-making category. 

But despite Roan being crowned Best New Artist at last year’s awards, where she dedicated the award to her queer and trans fans alike, the “Pink Pony Club” hitmaker is notably absent from this year’s nominations. 

The singer has seemingly been everywhere this year, from winning her second-ever BRIT Award, announcing an upcoming tour, to breaking hearts with her latest ballad “The Subway”. 

However, despite Roan’s continued success, she has only released one single during the 2025 VMA nominations eligibility period. Taking place between 20 June 2024 and 18 June 2025, Roan’s singular eligible release was “The Giver”, released on 14 March 2025.

Despite dipping her toes into the country music scene with the track, we’re disappointed that the song failed to be nominated in the new Best Country category. Artists including Chris Stapleton, Cody Johnson and Carrie Underwood, Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney and Morgan Wallen have instead received nods in the category. 

And before you ask, the song may not have been eligible for Video of the Year, either. Although the star had an ingenious marketing strategy to drum up hype for the release of “The Giver”, she did not release an accompanying music video for the track and opted for an official lyric video.

Fans are still holding out hope that Roan could be nominated for Song of the Summer, which was not announced alongside the other nominations – though the category is normally announced with the full cohort of nominees. 

The 2025 VMAs will air 7 September on CBS for the first time, as well as on MTV, and a livestream on Paramount+ (for premium subscribers).

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