Women took home the night’s biggest awards at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards, held on Sunday, September 27 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and hosted by Snoop Dogg. Madonna, who entered as the leading nominee with 13 nominations, won Artist of the Year, Best Dance for her short film Confessions II and Best Collaboration for Bring Your Love with Sabrina Carpenter, finishing the night with seven trophies in total. She and Carpenter also opened the show together, marking Madonna’s first live performance at the VMAs in 23 years.
Taylor Swift won Video of the Year for The Fate of Ophelia and Best Direction for Opalite, and was presented with the inaugural MTV VMA Artist Director Honors by Dakota Johnson for her work behind the camera. The wins take her career total to 32 VMAs, putting her ahead of Beyoncé, with whom she had been tied at 30. Swift dedicated her Video of the Year award to Dolly Parton.
Lisa won the first prize of the night, taking Best Pop for Dream featuring Kentaro Sakaguchi, and Sienna Spiro was named Best New Artist after fans voted during the show. Olivia Rodrigo won Best Alternative for The Cure, Ariana Grande took Song of Summer for hate that i made you love me, and Cardi B and Kehlani won Best Hip-Hop for Safe. The night also included tributes, with Kacey Musgraves paying homage to Dolly Parton and Raye joining Sombr and Teddy Swims to honour George Michael, while Nirvana received the Video Vanguard Award.
Nigeria was represented in the nominations by Tems, who was up for Best R&B with British-Nigerian rapper Dave for Raindance, an award that went to Bruno Mars for I Just Might. Burna Boy was also nominated alongside Shakira for Dai Dai in the Best Collaboration and Best Latin categories, which went to Madonna and Carpenter and to Bad Bunny respectively. This year’s ceremony did not include the Best Afrobeats category, which had been awarded in each of the previous three editions.
