NEED TO KNOW
Britney Spears will not appear at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards
“She was never due to perform,” a source tells PEOPLE
The VMAS will be held in New York on Sept. 7
The 2025 MTV Video Music Awards will go on without Britney Spears.
After a number of fan accounts pushed rumors that the pop star, 43, would return to the awards show for the first time in nearly 10 years, a source tells PEOPLE that that is not the case.
“She was never due to perform,” the source says.
Rumors began circulating on X in late July, with one popular Spears fan account posting that she’d be performing a 10-minute medley of hits ahead of the surprise release of a new album in September. TMZ was first to report that she would not be appearing.
The “Piece of Me” singer has a long history with the VMAs, including a number of iconic performances. In 2001, she famously sang her hit “I’m a Slave 4 U” with a python draped over her shoulders, and in 2003, and she shared a steamy kiss with Madonna after performing “Like a Virgin” with Christina Aguilera.
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Britney Spears in the audience at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards at Paramount Pictures Studios on September 7, 2008 in Los Angeles, California.
In 2007, she appeared at the VMAs to sing her song “Gimme More” in a performance that was widely criticized at the time. In her 2023 memoir The Woman in Me, Spears revealed that she didn’t want to do the performance after a difficult year, but felt pressured by her team, and wound up having a panic attack backstage.
In 2011, Spears received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. She last appeared on the VMAs stage in 2016, when she sang “Make Me” and “Me, Myself & I” with G-Eazy.
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Spears regularly posts videos of herself dancing on Instagram. In June, she shared a photo and video of her posing with her son Jayden, 18, whom she shares with ex-husband Kevin Federline. They are also parents to son Sean Preston, 19.
The 2025 MTV Video Music Awards will air live from UBS Arena in New York on Sunday, Sept. 7.
Lady Gaga leads the pack with nods in 12 categories. Additional artists with the most nominations include Bruno Mars with 11, Kendrick Lamar with 10, ROSÉ and Sabrina Carpenter with eight each, Ariana Grande and The Weeknd with seven each, Billie Eilish with six and Charli xcx with five.
Read the original article on People
