Madonna and Taylor Swift triumphed at the 2026 MTV Video Music awards, with the former winning three trophies and the latter winning the night’s top honor, extending her run as the most-awarded artist in VMAs history.
In a ceremony that largely awarded female artists, Madonna entered the evening as the most nominated artist of the year with 13 nods and won seven, including three during the telecast: for best collaboration (with Sabrina Carpenter), best dance, and artist of the year.
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“Most of you were probably not born when I performed at the very first VMAs 43 years ago,” the 68-year-old said while accepting the award for artist of the year, which she won over Swift, Carpenter, Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars and Morgan Wallen.
After recalling how she fell and accidentally exposed her rear, threatening her nascent career in a very different media landscape, Madonna ended on a more serious note. “I spent the last year and a half finding myself, believing in myself and really making the music that I wanted to make,” she said. “My hope for all of you here tonight is that you … do the same. Find yourself and believe in yourself.”
Madonna, whose provocative performances in the 1980s helped cement the VMAs as a can’t-miss cultural event, opened the show at the Peacock theater in Los Angeles with her first VMAs performance in 23 years, the first since her infamous onstage kiss with Britney Spears in 2003.
She performed two songs from this summer’s Confessions II: Bring Your Love with Carpenter, and a intricate, lively rendition of Danceteria, her tribute to New York’s 1980s club scene, with Charli xcx and a who’s who of background dancers including Julia Garner, the actor who was cast to play Madonna in a long-gestating biopic that was cancelled after a “falling out” with Universal Studios.
Swift won three categories, including the night’s top honor – video of the year – for The Fate of Ophelia, and the inaugural artist director honors. The new award, to celebrate “groundbreaking music artists whose work behind the camera has expanded the possibilities of music video”, honored Swift’s status as the most-decorated music video director in the show’s history, as well as its most-awarded solo artist.
Swift dedicated her win to “the ultimate showgirl” Dolly Parton, who died last month at 80 after being diagnosed with cancer.
“Listening to her songs, it’s like watching the best music video you have ever seen in your life, every single time you hear what she’s written,” she said. “And she handled this thing with such grace and joy and love and gratitude for the fact that she got to do this, and everything that happened in her life or her career, she channelled back into love and gratitude and appreciation for her fans.
“I’m lucky I got to be one of them, and I’ll always be one of them. I think we were all very lucky to share this planet with Dolly Parton for a time.”
After reflecting on her 20 years of making nearly 60 music videos, 18 of which she wrote and directed, Swift premiered her new video for Patient Zero, the lead single from The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, her four-track addition to last year’s critically maligned album. The new video sees her twinning with actor Dakota Johnson in a showdown with a mutual ex played by Colin Farrell.
Country singer Kacey Musgraves paid tribute to Parton by harmonizing with archival video of the late singer performing her hit I Will Always Love You, to a visibly moved crowd. Later on, Sombr, Raye, Teddy Swims and Adam Lambert performed hits from George Michael’s Faith tour, 10 years after the English singer’s death aged 53.
Madonna and Swift’s dominance – the duo won four of the six awards handed out during the two-and-a-half-hour telecast, which was delayed by more than 20 minutes by an NFL game – injected some much-needed star power in a show that has struggled to find its identity in the streaming era.
Presided over by a largely absent, if reliably chill first-time host, Snoop Dogg, the 2026 VMA telecast was once again dominated by female artists. K-pop star Lisa won best pop for her song Dream, while British newcomer Sienna Spiro was named best new artist after fans voted throughout the show.
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The Michael Jackson video vanguard award, a honorary lifetime achievement prize, went to Nirvana, for the influence of the era-defining grunge band’s music videos. The visual concepts for Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, In Bloom, Heart-shaped Box and All Apologies “came out of the vision of one of the greatest artists of all time, Kurt Cobain,” said Krist Novoselic, the band’s bassist, speaking on behalf of drummer Dave Grohl and guitarist Pat Smear, who joined the band on tour beginning in 1993.
Cobain, who took his own life in 1994, was “one of one” he added, noting that the band’s music still resonates because “people are still hungry for authenticity, for something real, something uncompromising … Kurt would have loved that legacy.”
In categories not included in the telecast, K-pop group BTS won best group and best K-pop and song of the year for their hit Swim, Bruno Mars won best R&B for I Just Might, Cardi B and Kehlani won best hip-hop for Safe, Bad Bunny won best Latin for NUEVAYoL, Olivia Rodrigo won best alternative for The Cure, and Ella Langley won best country for her record-breaking hit Choosin’ Texas.
