Britney Spears Won't Be Performing at the 2025 MTV VMAs

Various outlets like People and TMZ report that she will not make an official stage appearance at the upcoming awards show, with one source telling People: “She was never due to perform.” TMZ added to the mess of confusion, reporting alongside various outlets that she would likewise not be “bringing her son Jayden along for the big night,” which some fans claimed as a possibility.

Her last MTV VMAs performance came courtesy of a dual set with G-Eazy, where she performed “Me, Myself & I.” That’s correct, this woman has been out of the game for so long, her last stage appearance at the iconic awards show was when G-Eazy was a relevant figure in pop culture.

Other notable appearances include that time she draped a python draped across herself for a 2001 performance of her hit, “I’m A Slave 4 U.”

Two years later, she’d made international headlines again when she kissed Madonna following a performance of “Like a Virgin” alongside Christina Aguilera. A 2023 report in Rolling Stone claimed their kiss was kept secret by everyone at MTV beforehand.

Now, the confounding and baseless rumors were mostly made worse by the fact that Spears has made it exceedingly clear she has no real intention of returning to the music industry anytime soon. In 2024, after reports surfaced that she was collaborating with Charli xcx, Spears responded on Instagram: “They keep saying I’m turning to random people to do a new album … I will never return to the music industry. When I write, I write for fun or I write for other people !!! For those of you who have read my book, there’s loads that you don’t know about me … I’ve written over 20 songs for other people the past two years !!!”

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