The Highs, Lows, and Whoas of the 2026 MTV VMAs

When Madonna used her speech (one of them) to complain about Sabrina Carpenter’s team taking too long to reply, we could all relate to her impatience given that we too were just left waiting and waiting for the VMAs to finally kick off. Thankfully, the Ravens vs. Cowboys game finally ended, and the (slightly delayed) MTV Video Music Awards were off to the races — though it might as well have just been the Madonna Show. The Queen of Pop opened up the ceremony with her beloved green pussy lasers for a Confessions II performance featuring both Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX, among many, many others (and a few urinals). And that certainly wasn’t her last time onstage. Madge went on to dominate the night, winning Best Collaboration, Best Dance, and Artist of the Year, and she did more comedy in her speeches than the show’s host, Snoop Dogg, did all night.

But the Madonna Show did have one notable digression — Taylor Swift accepted the first ever Artist Director Honors, a seemingly made-up award that was just an excuse for her and Dakota Johnson to have a bangs summit and an opportunity for her to premiere her latest music video (starring Johnson and Colin Farrell). The “Patient Zero” video featured Johnson doing some of her most pivotal acting since she said she loved limes, as well as some bizarre argument dialogue mid-song à la the “All Too Well” short film. Luckily, Swift accepted her award before showing everybody the video, because there was a good chance the awards body might have changed its mind. Then she ended the night by breaking Madonna’s streak with a win for Video of the Year for “The Fate of Ophelia” and dedicated the award to “the ultimate showgirl” Dolly Parton.

LOW: Rock and Roll Prom delayed for jock stuff

Those trying to join the VMA livestream on Paramount+ were probably pretty confused to see the Ravens-Cowboys game still going well past 7:30. The only protective padding I wanted to see tonight was on Bob the Drag Queen and Monét X Change. The game went on so long, the livestream audience had to wait to see Madonna, Charli XCX, and Sabrina Carpenter open the show. It was Madonna’s first VMA performance in 23 years, and instead of seeing it live, we got a football game between two teams with zero Taylor Swift husbands? Unconscionable. This sort of thing didn’t happen back when the Video Music Awards was an MTV event and not a moment of cross-Paramount synergy. — Bethy Squires

HIGH: Ravens earned the first win of the night

In a thrilling twist, the Ravens actually captured our attention by narrowly avoiding overtime with a field goal in the final second of the game! It may not have been the show we meant to tune in to, but we still got one. — Isabella Albaig

WHOA: Madonna brought out everybody

Madonna opened the show with a Coachella encore, first reuniting with a beret-wearing Sabrina Carpenter to perform “Bring Your Love” before riding a roving square of dance floor like a magic carpet to the bathroom. Well, not the actual bathroom, but a re-creation of the bathroom set from the Confessions II film, but this time with Charli XCX emerging from one of the stalls with a cigarette in hand. Hide the cocaine! The pair performed their newly released remix of “Danceteria,” which features a lot of them just saying each other’s names, as Madonna is wont to do with her collaborators. And if Sabrina and Charli weren’t enough, Madge’s other special guests in her bathroom included the winner of Madonna Biopic Bootcamp Julia Garner, a seemingly 12-foot-tall Sombr, Fab 5 Freddy, Seth Rogen, and the star of Younger, her best friend Debi Mazar. — Tom Smyth

HIGH: Snoop Dogg, surely

At least he must have been high if he thought it was a good idea to open the show with a knock-knock joke that was just an excuse to say, “Deez nuts.” — T.S.

HIGH: Raye needs to do a Bond song

They need to hurry up and announce the new James Bond because what are we doing, waiting around while Raye has a pitch-perfect Bond song in her? Her performance tonight, drenched in red and flanked by violins, was a testament to the timeless appeal of her voice. It’s great to have a pop star in the mainstream scene who can really belt out a note. Let’s have her do it on the big screen ASAP. — Fran Hoepfner

LOW: Bruno Mars’s performance could’ve been an email

The show was already running about 20 minutes behind due to the football game, so maybe we didn’t need to see a pretaped performance from Bruno Mars. Even if he looked really cool playing guitar. Cutting the song could’ve gotten the show closer to airing live, and the best VMA moments are always the unplanned ones. — Alejandra Gularte

WHOA: Sabrina left Madonna waiting for five days

Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter won the VMA for Tiny Women, Huge Impact Best Collaboration, taking the stage like two Polly Pockets to accept the award with some backstory about how the collab came to be. Madonna quickly put Sabrina on blast (or at least her team) for leaving her waiting five whole days after she first reached out about working together, so the admittedly impatient icon took matters into her own hands. “When five days passed, I DM’d her. And she answered me back, and within weeks we were in the studio together,” Madonna said. Sabrina did clarify that her team does respond, so if you want to reach out, there’s hope … but it sounds like your best bet will be to just hit her up directly. — T.S.

HIGH: Kacey Musgraves’s tribute to Dolly Parton

The award-winning female country star honored her musical predecessor, the late country-music legend, with a touching rendition of “I Will Always Love You,” opening and closing her performance alongside one of Parton’s past live performances. Inspired by Parton’s iconic flashy feminine style, Musgraves wore a formfitting hot-pink sparkly dress with feather trimming, silver hoop earrings, and purple eye shadow. A pink butterfly, Parton’s personal lifelong emblem, appeared on a screen behind Musgraves as she sang, undoubtedly symbolic of Parton’s lasting presence in the industry. — I.A.

LOW: No celeb reactions?

Half of the fun of the VMAs is seeing all of the year’s stars dancing to each other’s music. Some of them look like they’re having a blast. Some of them look bored to tears. The celeb reactions at the VMAs have been a tried-and-true meme factory for years and years, so where are they? Most of the audience shots this year are screaming fans, whose enthusiasm is cute but not especially interesting. It seems like a huge missed opportunity not to cut to Taylor Swift half-drunkenly dancing to “Danceteria.” — F.H.

WHOA: Cigs are so back

Charli XCX and Pat Smear smoking live onstage. And in smoke-free California, no less. Cigfluencers must be kvelling. — B.S.

HIGH: Artist of the Year goes to the Queen of Comedy

Madonna started off her acceptance speech for Artist of the Year with a joke: “I would like to thank my fingers because I can always count on them.” She was cutting up with that one. She saw Snoop’s opening and knew something had to be done to get that crowd laughing. At this rate, the next award she’ll be accepting is gonna be the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. — T.S.

LOW: Sombr honoring George Michael (without his sex belt)

Displeasing to the ear. And worst of all, he ditched the sex belt (a belt that said “SEX” on it, not a belt you wear for sex) that he had on the red carpet, which George Michael certainly would not approve of. George Michael would want the sex belt to stay! At least Sombr, Raye, and Teddy Swims were joined by Adam Lambert at the last minute after the backlash the show initially got for not including any queer performers in the tribute to the gay icon. — T.S.

HIGH: Yung Lean’s ice cream

In lieu of a microphone, Yung Lean clutched and occasionally ate an ice cream cone during his and GENER8ION’s performance of “Storm.” The live performance re-created the music video’s magnetic choreography in one of the night’s most striking tableaux. Our big question: What flavor was that blue ice cream? Superman? Cotton candy? Blue raspberry? — F.H.

WHOA: Taylor Swift dedicating the evening’s final win to Dolly Parton

Swift won the final award of the night, Video of the Year for “The Fate of Ophelia,” and dedicated it to “the ultimate showgirl” Dolly Parton. “Every single song that she wrote, her storytelling was so vivid and so rich. 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 has written,” Swift said in her speech. “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 channeled back into love and gratitude and appreciation for her fans.” — A.G.