Madonna, Sabrina, Charli: VMAs Afterhours
Courtesy of MTV/CBS
Madonna returned to the MTV Video Music Awards stage last night for her first live performance in 23 years. And let us get this straight: it wasn’t 23 years since she was on the show, as Chris Willman wrote in his interview with former MTV Networks head and current show producer Van Toffler on Variety.
Besides opening the show in 1989 (with Express Yourself), 1993 (Bye Bye Baby), 1998 (Shanti/Ashtangi and Ray of Light) and 2003 (Like a Virgin/Hollywood with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliott), Madonna also performed on the MTV stage in its inaugural 1984 edition (the Like a Virgin at the very first VMAs did not actually open the broadcast), in 1987 (Causing a Commotion, a recording from her Who’s That Girl World Tour stop in Turin, Italy) and 1990 (Vogue).
She was also on the show in 1986 (to receive the Video Vanguard Award), 1994 (the Letterman Monologue, to present Video of the Year alongside David Letterman himself), 1995 (the Courtney Love “incident”, in the year Madonna won Best Female Video with Take a Bow and presented the Best Rap Video award), and 1999 (to present the living legend Paul McCartney with a special honour).
In the last 20 years Madonna also appeared on the show in 2009 (for a tribute to Michael Jackson), 2018 (the Aretha Franklin eulogy) and on MTV’s 40th Anniversary in 2021, making a surprise appearance to kick off the broadcast (“They said we wouldn’t last. But we’re still here, motherfuckers”).
As you can see, you don’t need to be one of those with long memories to remember about five years ago – it just takes a pinch of intellectual honesty to agree that Madonna is synonymous with the VMAs – the “M” in MTV.
Back to last night’s show, Madonna had quite a spotlight on herself ahead of this year’s edition as the artist with the most nominations (13). And she left the show to party with her friends at Chateau Marmont with 7 moon persons.
Five awards where voted by the fans:
- Artist of the Year
- Best Collaboration (Bring Your Love, with Sabrina Carpenter)
- Best Dance (Confessions II – The Film)
- Best Long Form Video (Confessions II – The Film – Madonna became the only artist to win this award twice)
- and Best Album (Confessions II)
Two more were professional categories, both related to Confessions II – The Film:
- Best Cinematography (Daniel Landin)
- and Best Choreography (Damien Jalet, Megan Lawson, Young Boy Dancing Group, Nicolas Huchard)
What made her presence at the show unique? There are pop stars who perform at the MTV Video Music Awards, and then there is Madonna, who helped shape the music video format.
Her return to the VMAs stage was not an attempt to recreate the past by performing songs from an amazing music catalogue. Instead, Madonna used the language that she helped create and translated it into 2026, introducing her new chapter to a wider audience.
Her opening line — “It’s mother” — immediately established the tone.
It was playful, self-aware, and unmistakably Madonna: a tiny statement that acknowledged both her status and the enormous cultural history surrounding her, referencing at the same time her latest – and ongoing – project.
Courtesy of MTV/CBS
The first part of the performance, together with Sabrina Carpenter, shows how Madonna understands the importance of surrounding herself with younger artists, but not in an attempt to borrow relevance from them. Instead, she welcomes them into her own world. Bring Your Love – the number marked the return of Sabrina’s vocals on the instrumentaion of the Afterhours remix – showed two generations meeting on equal creative ground. Madonna brought her history, attitude, and theatricality, while Sabrina brought her own contemporary pop personality and sparkle. It worked perfectly. Both delivered a glamorous performance.
After reprising the idea of the moving table from the One Step Away sequence in Confessions II: The Film, which looked like something she would probably use on an upcoming tour, a gospel choir ends the song while the set changes into the Danceteria toilet scene, recreated in pure stage show glory by the talents at Stufish. From one of the stalls, Charli xcx joins Madonna to perform their new version of the song.
Courtesy of MTV/CBS
Rather than simply standing onstage and singing, Madonna brought elements of Confessions II: The Film and its characters into the VMA environment. The appearance of figures connected to the project – including Julia Garner and Debi Mazar – more artists connected to Madonna’s past and present story like Andrew Watt, Fab Five Freddy and Tony Ward, and surprise guests like Sombr, Tristan Schukraft and Seth Rogen – also gave the performance a cinematic quality.
Courtesy of MTV/CBS
For longtime fans, Debi Mazar’s presence was one of the most enjoyable details, as she represents a connection to Madonna’s New York history and to an earlier chapter of her artistic life. The same happened in a virtual way with Maripol, whose image from one of her iconic Polaroids appeared on the screens of the Peacock Theater during the song. Bringing her longtime friends from the early years into the Confessions II world gave the show an additional layer that casual viewers might easily miss.
Courtesy of MTV/CBS
In decades of live performances, Madonna has fallen onstage, reinvented songs, introduced new dance styles to enormous television audiences, challenged expectations, and turned award-show appearances into cultural events. This was another addition to that legacy.
But most importantly, she returned to the VMAs not as a museum piece, but as an active participant in contemporary pop culture, with a number-one album whose majority of sales are physical – people actually wanted to possess the record.
She doesn’t need to prove that she has been important. Everybody knows that she is an icon. Her point was to demonstrate that she can still evolve, and she succeeded in doing that.
Courtesy of MTV/CBS
Check out more pictures from last night’s show on MadonnaTribe’s Instagram.
