BBCOM Photo Gallery
For most of the world, the extent to which we get to see what goes on at the annual Met Gala starts and ends with the red carpet. There, the biggest stars of music, television, film and sports walk the red carpet in avant-garde looks designed by some of fashion’s biggest visionaries and legacy brands, all coinciding with a different theme. This year, the dress code was “Tailored for You” in honor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new costume institute exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” focusing on “the role of sartorial style in forming Black identities” and “the emergence, significance and proliferation of the Black dandy.” Under those guidelines, co-chairs A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams, Lewis Hamilton and Colman Domingo, plus superstar guests Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Doechii, Sabrina Carpenter, ROSÉ, LISA, JENNIE and many more, showed up and showed out in elaborate looks marked by structured jackets, neutral colors and poignant head- and neckpieces.
But what happens after all those stars brave the camera flashes and red-carpet interviews and head inside? That’s the part we don’t get to see as much of, not to mention the various afterparties that go down once the dining and mingling of the actual gala conclude.
Luckily, anyone wanting a peek at the most exclusive parts of fashion’s biggest night needn’t look any further. Below, Billboard has rounded up all of the best photos of everything that happened after the carpet, both from inside the Met and amongst parties held by the likes of Pharrell, Public’s, Boom at the Standard, the Brooklyn Chop House and more.
Featuring cool outfit changes and fun celebrity link-ups, keep scrolling to check them out.
Sabrina Carpenter & Usher
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images
Sabrina Carpenter reacts as Usher performs during the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Doja Cat
Image Credit: Stephanie Augello
Doja Cat at the Richie Akiva’s “The After” hosted by Tyla, Colman Domingo, Doja Cat, Edward Enninful Met Gala after party held at Casa Cipriani on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Zendaya & Dua Lipa
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images
Zendaya and Dua Lipa attend the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Maluma
Image Credit: Lexie Moreland
Maluma at the Willy Chavarria Met Gala after party co-hosted with Wayman and Micah held at the Mark Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
S.Coups, Jennie & Lisa
Image Credit: Arturo Holmes/MG25/Getty Images
S.Coups, Jennie, and Lisa attend the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Janelle Monáe
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores
Janelle Monáe at the PUBLIC’s Met Gala after party with Doechii and Janelle Monae held at the PUBLIC Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Pharrell Williams
Image Credit: Zach Hilty/BFA.com
Pharrell Williams attends Pharrell Williams’ After Hours Uno Tournament at Crane Club on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Megan Thee Stallion & Angel Reese
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images
Megan Thee Stallion and Angel Reese attend the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Stevie Wonder & Usher
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images
Stevie Wonder and Usher perform onstage during the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Mary J. Blige
Image Credit: Joy Malone/Getty Images
Mary J. Blige attends the Brooklyn Chop House Met Gala After Party on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
PinkPantheress, Halle Bailey & Keke Palmer
Image Credit: Zach Hilty/BFA.com
PinkPantheress, Halle Bailey and Keke Palmer attend Pharrell Williams’ After Hours Uno Tournament at Crane Club on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Burna Boy
Image Credit: Alyssa Greenberg
Burna Boy at the Boom at the Standard Met Gala after party held at the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Darren Criss, Adam Lambert, Oliver Gliese & Mia Criss
Image Credit: Alyssa Greenberg
Darren Criss, Adam Lambert, Oliver Gliese and Mia Criss at the Boom at the Standard Met Gala after party held at the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Rihanna & A$AP Rocky
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky attend the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Jenna Ortega & Sabrina Carpenter
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images
Jenna Ortega and Sabrina Carpenter attend the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Lisa & Future
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images
Lisa and Future attend the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Keke Palmer, Angela Bassett & Lizzo
Image Credit: Cindy Ord/MG25/Getty Images
Keke Palmer, Angela Bassett and Lizzo attend the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Burna Boy & Shaboozy
Image Credit: Alyssa Greenberg
Burna Boy and Shaboozy at the Boom at the Standard Met Gala after party held at the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Jennie & Gigi Hadid
Image Credit: Mike Coppola/MG25/Getty Images
Jennie and Gigi Hadid attend the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Kaytranada
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores
Kaytranada at the PUBLIC’s Met Gala after party with Doechii and Janelle Monae held at the PUBLIC Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Usher
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/MG25/Getty Images
Usher performs onstage during the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
A$AP Rocky
Image Credit: Steve Eichner
A$AP Rocky at A$AP Rocky Met Gala After Party Inside on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Yara Shahidi & Halle Bailey
Image Credit: Alyssa Greenberg
Yara Shahidi and Halle Bailey at the Boom at the Standard Met Gala after party held at the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Andra Day
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores
Andra Day at the PUBLIC’s Met Gala after party with Doechii and Janelle Monae held at the PUBLIC Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Lupita Nyong’o, Burna Boy & Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Image Credit: Alyssa Greenberg
Lupita Nyong’o, Burna Boy and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at the Boom at the Standard Met Gala after party held at the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Pusha T
Image Credit: Zach Hilty/BFA.com
Pusha T attends Pharrell Williams’ After Hours Uno Tournament at Crane Club on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Ciara & Rihanna
Image Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
Ciara and Rihanna attend the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Bebe Rexha, Coco Rocha & Christian Siriano
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores
Bebe Rexha, Coco Rocha and Christian Siriano at the PUBLIC’s Met Gala after party with Doechii and Janelle Monae held at the PUBLIC Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Kelela
Image Credit: Bre Johnson
Kelela at the Apres Met after party for the Met Gala held at WSA on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Chance The Rapper
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores
Chance The Rapper at the PUBLIC’s Met Gala after party with Doechii and Janelle Monae held at the PUBLIC Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Halle Bailey, Sydney Sweeney & Lisa
Image Credit: Arturo Holmes/MG25/Getty Images
Halle Bailey, Sydney Sweeney, and Lisa attend the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Leon Bridges
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores
Leon Bridges at the PUBLIC’s Met Gala after party with Doechii and Janelle Monae held at the PUBLIC Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Busta Rhymes
Image Credit: Alyssa Greenberg
Busta Rhymes at the Boom at the Standard Met Gala after party held at the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Nick Jonas & Priyanka Chopra Jonas
Image Credit: Alyssa Greenberg
Nicks Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jona at the Boom at the Standard Met Gala after party held at the Boom Boom Room at the Standard Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
Maggie Rogers
Image Credit: Zach Hilty/BFA.com
Maggie Rogers attends Pharrell Williams’ After Hours Uno Tournament at Crane Club on May 5, 2025 in New York City.
Questlove
Image Credit: Gilbert Flores
Questlove at the PUBLIC’s Met Gala after party with Doechii and Janelle Monae held at the PUBLIC Hotel on May 5, 2025 in New York, New York.
The heat was up in Austin, Texas, this week, but the music was even hotter. Approximately 300,000 people descended upon the Texas capital from March 7 to 15 for SXSW 2025. As it has annually since 1987, the gathering brought together musicians, artists, directors, innovators and other creatives for panels, performances, barbecue and general revelry. […]
Fashion Week is taking over France, and so is a wave of Latin artists. Paris Fashion Week — running from Sept. 23 to Oct. 1 — is hosting its annual event where a number of designer brands are presenting Womenswear Spring/Summer 2025 collections. Music stars have been spotted all over during the coveted week, either […]
The 2024 iHeartRadio Music Festival brought the biggest voices on radio to the stage for two music-packed nights on Friday and Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and Billboard was backstage and in the pit for all the action.Night 1 saw Dua Lipa and Camila Cabello hit the stage, and Billboard‘s camera caught the pop powerhouses backstage for a sweet embrace, as well as Cabello’s meet-up with fellow Friday performer Gwen Stefani. We also captured Shaboozey walking the halls backstage after performing his now-11-week Billboard Hot 100-topping breakout hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
Night 2 kicked off with New Kids on the Block, who just announced last week that they’ll launch their first-ever Las Vegas residency on June 20 at Dolby Live at Park MGM. So was the iHeart set a good preview of what fans can expect? “A really small preview, because this was 20 minutes,” Donnie Wahlberg told Billboard backstage. “We’re going to do a very long, very intricate, hopefully very exciting and fun and energetic set with a lot of songs, a lot of hits, a lot of feels. But it was also a sample for us of the audience. Because it’s a real good example of what it might be like. A lot of New Kids fans showed up, and a lot of fans who were experiencing us for the first time. We pride ourselves on the fun and the energy that we bring to a show, and this was a great opportunity for us to share that with this crowd.” We also caught up with Donnie’s wife, Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg, backstage who is ready to house-hunt in Sin City: “Now I just get to come to Vegas and find a place to live, because we’re absolutely going to be finding houses to station ourselves here for a few months — or a few years, maybe.” The New Kids also invited Flavor Flav out onstage for their “Hangin’ Tough” finale, and we caught the Public Enemy hype man backstage with Wahlberg and bandmate Danny Wood.
Keith Urban also played on Saturday night, making the most of a brisk 20-minute set by playing three songs from his just-released High album: “Messed Up as Me,” “Wildside” and “Straight Line.” “We just packed ’em in as quick as possible,” Urban laughed backstage, adding that fans have been quick to embrace the new material. “It’s been immediate, which i haven’t seen that in a long time. It is what it is with songwriting — you write songs and some connect immediately and some take awhile — but when we did ‘Messed Up as Me’ from this record, it was immediate, because we were playing festivals, and it was immediate. ‘Wildside’ was immediate, the first night we did that. ‘Straight Line’ — it’s a different record.”
Before night 2 kicked off, Billboard caught up with OBB Media CEO Michael D. Ratner, whose team produced the festival livestream, which broadcast both nights on Hulu in real time. After teaming up with iHeart for livestreams of the New York and Los Angeles stops of Jingle Ball late last year, Ratner said his team was able to jump in seamlessly to take the reins of the iHeartRadio Music Festival for the first time in the fest’s 14 years. “The reason we work so well together is iHeart knows music,” he said on Saturday. “They have amazing talent relationships, as do we, but the idea that we’re able to storytell and make these shows more layered … it’s not just watching performance after performance after performance.” One key to that was adding some Vegas-specific touches, like teaming up mentalist Max Major with Cabello or enlisting the Blue Man Group for an intro. “You get these fun moments, and it’s embedded in the history of Vegas. … You mix that with what Vegas is today, which is residencies and EDM and lights and day parties and the Sphere, I think making it new and fresh while having a nod to old Vegas is cool. It’s a really good balance and team that makes the show very unique.”
If you weren’t in Vegas or just want to relive the two days of hits over again, find Billboard‘s best photos from backstage and onstage below.
Thomas Rhett & Gwen Stefani
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Thomas Rhett and Gwen Stefani at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Shaboozey
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Shaboozey at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Victoria Monét
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Victoria Monét at day 2 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Dua Lipa & Camila Cabello
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Dua Lipa and Camila Cabello at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Doja Cat
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Doja Cat at day 2 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
New Kids on the Block
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Joey McIntyre, Danny Wood, Donnie Wahlberg, Jordan Knight and Jonathan Knight of New Kids on the Block at day 2 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Black Crowes
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Keith Urban
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Keith Urban at day 2 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gwen Stefani
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Gwen Stefani at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Halsey
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Halsey at day 2 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Thomas Rhett
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Thomas Rhett at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Shaboozey
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Shaboozey at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Camila Cabello & Gwen Stefani
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Camila Cabello and Gwen Stefani at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Dua Lipa
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Dua Lipa at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Donnie Wahlberg, Flavor Flav & Danny Wood
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Donnie Wahlberg, Flavor Flav and Danny Wood at day 2 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gwen Stefani
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Gwen Stefani at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Nate White
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Nate White at day 2 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Camilla Cabello
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Camilla Cabello at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Big Boy, AJ McLean & Christina Milian
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Big Boy, AJ McLean and Christina Milian at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Armani White
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Armani White at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Camila Cabello
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Camila Cabello performs on stage at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gwen Stefani
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Gwen Stefani at day 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg
Image Credit: Christopher Polk for Billboard
Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg backstage on day 2 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival held at T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 21, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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