Madonna Leads 2026 VMAs Nominations
The nominations for the 2026 MTV VMAs have been announced today, and Madonna is leading with nods for 11 Moon Persons, including those for video, artist and song of the year.
As Paul Grein on Billboard.com notes, this is the third time in Madonna’s career she is the leading nominee, and the first since 1998, when she won video of the year for the first time with Ray of Light.
Madonna was also the leading nominee in 1990, the year she was nominated for the top award with Vogue; in both of those years, she had 9 nods, hence this year’s tally of 11 represents a personal best for the legendary star.
Seven of the eight artists with the most nominations this year are women; following Madonna’s 11 nominations are Taylor Swift (9), Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter (7 each), Bruno Mars, Pink Pantheress and Zara Larsson (5 each); and LISA (4).
Madonna has been nominated in every decade of her musical career and amassed 19 competitive MTV VMA wins. She became the first solo female artist to receive the Video Vanguard Award in 1986.
This year she is up for five awards voted by the fans:
- Video of the Year (Confessions II – The Film)
- Artist of the Year
- Song of the Year (Bring Your Love, with Sabrina Carpenter)
- Best Collaboration (Bring Your Love, with Sabrina Carpenter)
- Best Dance (Confessions II – The Film)
She is also nominated in six more categories with her Confessions II – The Film –all these categories are not votable by fans online:
- Best Direction – TORSO
- Best Art Direction – Camille Spiller
- Best Cinematography – Daniel Landin
- Best Editing – Danny Tull & Lauren Friedman
- Best Choreography – Damien Jalet
- Best Visual Effects – MONUMENTAL
The Best Dance category returns for the first time in 7 years. It was first presented in 1989 and Madonna has yet to win this Moon Person. This is also the first time she gets a nod for Artist of the Year.
The amazing Damien Jalet this year is nominated twice in the best coreography category – for Confessions II – The Film and for the acclaimed STORM starring Yung Lean.
VOTING is now open for 13 categories at vote.mtv.com – including 5 Madonna is nominated for – and today, August 18, you can vote up to 20 times per category instead of 10.
You can also get double the votes per category every day during Power Hour, running daily 1-2 p.m. ET from August 20 through September 24, and on Wednesday, August 19 and Friday, August 25
The nominations for the three top categories are:
Video of the Year
- Ariana Grande – hate that i made you love me (Republic Records)
- Bruno Mars – I Just Might (Atlantic Records)
- GENER8ION – STORM starring Yung Lean (Iconoclast Music)
- Madonna – Confessions II – The Film (Warner Records)
- Sabrina Carpenter – Tears (Island)
- Taylor Swift – The Fate of Ophelia (Republic Records)
Artist of the Year
- Ariana Grande (Republic Records)
- Bruno Mars (Atlantic Records)
- Madonna (Warner Records)
- Morgan Wallen (Big Loud/Mercury Records)
- Sabrina Carpenter (Island)
- Taylor Swift (Republic Records)
Song of the Year
- BTS – Swim (BIGHIT MUSIC)
- Ella Langley – Choosin’ Texas (Columbia Records)
- HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI – Golden (Republic Records/Visva Records)
- Madonna & Sabrina Carpenter – Bring Your Love (Warner Records)
- Olivia Dean – Man I Need (Island)
- PinkPantheress + Zara Larsson – Stateside (Warner Records UK/Atlantic Records)
- RAYE – WHERE IS MY HUSBAND! (Human Re Sources)
The two-hour awards show will broadcast live on CBS on Sunday, September 27 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern and 4:30 p.m. PST, from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It will also simulcast on MTV and be available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
The show will become available to stream globally the next day on Paramount+ and MTV.
This year the show returns the Los Angeles area for the first time since 2017, when it took place at The Forum in Inglewood, and it is the second time in a row that it airs on CBS.
