Madonna is back at the front of the MTV Video Music Awards pack, leading the 2026 nominations with 11 nods and adding another chapter to one of pop music’s longest-running relationships with the VMAs.
The pop icon earned recognition across several of the night’s biggest categories, including Video of the Year and Artist of the Year. Her “Confessions II – The Film” will compete for the top video prize, while her collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, “Bring Your Love,” also helped expand her presence across the ballot.
The 11 nominations represent a career high for Madonna at the VMAs, more than four decades after she first became part of the awards show’s history.
Her connection to MTV’s signature awards dates to 1984, when she received her first VMA nominations and delivered the “Like a Virgin” performance that became one of the defining moments of the show’s early years. Two years later, she became the first solo female artist to receive the Video Vanguard Award.
Now, she has another opportunity to add to her collection of Moon Person trophies.
Taylor Swift isn’t far behind.
Swift enters the 2026 race with nine nominations, including Video of the Year for “The Fate of Ophelia” and Artist of the Year. She arrives at this year’s ceremony with another piece of VMA history within reach. Swift and Beyoncé currently share the record for the most VMA wins, with 30 each, so one victory would give Swift sole possession of the record.
The competition remains crowded beyond the two leaders.
Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter collected seven nominations each, while Bruno Mars, PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson received five apiece. BLACKPINK’s LISA earned four nominations, with Shakira, Tate McRae, GENER8ION and Yung Lean among the other artists scoring multiple nods.
Video of the Year brings together Grande, Mars, GENER8ION, Madonna, Carpenter and Swift, creating a field that mixes some of pop’s biggest names with less predictable contenders.
Artist of the Year is similarly stacked. Madonna, Swift, Grande, Mars and Carpenter are joined by country superstar Morgan Wallen.
The wider ballot reaches well beyond mainstream pop, with categories recognizing hip-hop, R&B, alternative, dance, Latin, K-pop and country. The nominations also introduce a fresh group of artists to the VMA stage, with 26 acts receiving their first nominations.
That combination of newcomers and veterans gives this year’s awards an interesting generational split, but nobody embodies it quite like Madonna. More than 40 years after her first VMA appearance helped establish the show’s reputation for unpredictable pop culture moments, she enters 2026 as its most-nominated artist.
The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards are scheduled for Sunday, September 27, in Los Angeles. The ceremony will air live on CBS and MTV and stream on Paramount+ in the United States.
