Why SZA Skipped the 2025 MTV VMAs

THE RUNDOWN

• SZA was nominated at the 2025 MTV VMAs for Best R&B Song (“Drive”) and Best Collaboration (“Luther” with Kendrick Lamar).
• Despite this, the star chose to skip this year’s show.
• SZA has also been on the road this year with Kendrick Lamar for the Grand National Tour.

SZA didn’t attend the 2025 MTV VMAs, where she was nominated for Best R&B Song for “Drive” and Best Collaboration for “Luther” with Kendrick Lamar. She lost both categories to Mariah Carey and Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, respectively.

She kept a low profile that day but posted an Instagram after the ceremony about finding peace:

She last attended the show in 2o21:

In June, SZA spoke with Chappell Roan for Interview magazine, reflecting on her creative process and the role that curiosity plays in her career. “My curiosity outweighing my fear is the only thing that keeps me going,” she said. “Even the stadium tour—I’ve never been on a fucking stadium tour before. There’s so much fear… But I’m too curious about what it’s going to be like to go up in that harness and too curious about what it’s going to be like to really give my best Tina Turner impression. I just have to follow the thread.”

She also described how spirituality shapes her work and her approach to uncertainty. “I believe that water is my conduit for messaging and energy,” she said. “When I dropped my album, I gave so much to the ocean. I go to the ocean all the time and I laugh and eat cakes and brownies and then give them to her. I’m not even kidding.”

SZA acknowledged that despite her success, she still often feels like an outsider in the industry. “I always feel like the underdog,” she told Roan. “But that could be an internal feeling.” At the same time, she explained that choosing to show up—whether onstage or at events like the VMAs—has become part of how she challenges those doubts. “I used to not show up to something because it was like, ‘I’m never going to win. No one cares that I’m here. Why would I go?’ But now it’s just like, ‘Fuck it. I don’t have anything else to do, and I want to see where this door is going to lead.’”