MTV’s Video Music Awards were hosted on September 7th, 2025. There were numerous live performances throughout the night, one of which really stood out to me. Conan Gray performed “Vodka Cranberry” from his fourth album Wishbone and the performance was nothing short of exceptional. The performance revolved around Act 5 of Romeo and Juliet. With the Victorian wardrobe and the set decoration, it was distinctively clear. Conan even had his friend, Corey Folgelmanis, laying in the tomb playing Juliet during the performance. While thinking about the performance in context to the album and rewatching it, I have picked up on some symbolism which makes this performance even better.
The theme of the performance can be a callback to the song “Romeo” and in the song, Conan Gray says in the chorus “You’re no Romeo” repeatedly towards his ex. In the performance, Conan was depicted as Romeo, as he drank the potion at the end of the performance. Societally, when we call someone Romeo, it typically refers to a man being passionately in love, to me this shows that Conan was the one that was the most in love during the relationship. This checks out because he was the one that got dumped, not the other way around. In the song “Romeo” Conan mentions that his friends told him he can do better and that his ex was drunkenly with girls.
After the song was finished, Conan drinks the potion to “kill” off his character just how Romeo did in the book. The performance ends, but knowing the plot of Romeo and Juliet, we know that Juliet was not actually dead and she was faking it. To me, this represents Conan giving his all within the relationship and doing everything for his partner, just for his partner to be faking it. This is also in reference to Conan’s song “Killing Me” from his album Found Heaven. The song is about Conan still being hung up on someone to the point where it is “killing him”. He wants to be free from them, but it is hard to let go at the same time. Conan’s performance character kills himself for love just for it to backfire.
This all ties back to the theme of the album which is “a wishbone never breaks even”. At the end of the day, Conan is the one distraught after the break up and has the emotional baggage from it. He got the short end of the stick from putting his everything in the relationship and being a good partner, just for him to get his heart broken anyway.