Lady Gaga Brings ‘The Dead Dance’ to Life With Her Gothic 2025 VMAs Performance

Lady Gaga may not have been in the building for her performance at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday (Sept. 7), yet she still managed to stop the show with her high-octane, Madison Square Garden-hosted number.

Filmed during her Saturday (Sept. 6) stop of The Mayhem Ball at the iconic New York venue, Gaga appeared on stage in a massive red dress — as she does at the start of each of her Mayhem Ball shows — and told the crowd that the category was still “dance or die” as she launched into a killer performance of “Abracadabra.” Writhing around the top of a cage full of dancers, Gaga brought her dark pop gem to life, as she sported a massive, double-bunned black wig atop her head.

But fans got a special treat as Gaga slipped into down to the stage, performed a costume change and delivered the first televised performance of her latest song, “The Dead Dance.” Dressed as her haunted doll persona from the song’s Tim Burton-directed music video, Gaga broke out of the cage alongside her backup crew. Performing Parris Goebel’s jerking choreography from the video, Gaga sauntered down the catwalk at the Garden as she promised the crowd to “keep on dancing until I’m dead.”

Lady Gaga led the nominees at the annual ceremony, earning a stunning 12 nominations (among her 18 career wins prior to the ceremony), with Bruno Mars following her with 11 nominations, Kendrick Lamar with 10 and Sabrina Carpenter and BLACKPINK’s ROSÉ tied with eight. Ricky Martin took home the first-ever Latin icon award at the ceremony, while Mariah Carey was honored with the Video Vanguard Award.

Taking place at New York’s UBS Arena, MTV’s flagship even aired on CBS for the first time in its history, with rap superstar LL Cool J serving as host, and headlining performances throughout from stars such as Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae, Jelly Roll, Post Malone and Doja Cat.

Watch Gaga’s VMAs performance below: