Madonna and Taylor Swift Lead 2026 MTV VMA Nominations

Madonna has taken the lead in the nominations for the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards, announced by the network on Tuesday. Her career spans several decades, making her a perennial nominee. With 19 competitive MTV VMA wins to date, she was the first female solo artist honored with the Video Vanguard Award in 1986.

This year, Madonna is nominated for 11 awards including video, artist, and song of the year. She is also in the running for best collaboration, dance, direction, art direction, cinematography, editing, choreography, and visual effects. A sweep of these categories would place her alongside Beyoncé and Taylor Swift as the joint top winners in VMA history, who each have 30 awards. Eminem leads male artists with 15 VMAs.

Taylor Swift follows closely with nine nominations. Winning one more award would elevate her to the most-awarded artist in VMA history. Swift is in contention for video and artist of the year, alongside best pop, direction, art direction, cinematography, editing, choreography, and visual effects.

Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter each have seven nominations. Bruno Mars, PinkPantheress, and Zara Larsson each received five nods. Additionally, Blackpink’s LISA has four nominations while Shakira, Tate McRae, GENER8ION, and Yung Lean each have three.

The nominees for artist of the year include Grande, Mars, Carpenter, Morgan Wallen, alongside Madonna and Swift. The video of the year race pits Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” against Madonna’s “Confessions II — The Film,” Grande’s “Hate That I Made You Love Me,” Mars’ “I Just Might,” Carpenter’s “Tear,” and GENER8ION’s “Storm” featuring Yung Lean.

Scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 27, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern and 4:30 p.m. Pacific, the two-hour show will air live on CBS from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It will be simulcast on MTV and available for streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S. Global streaming will follow on Paramount+ and MTV the next day. CBS already boasts a lineup of award shows including the Tony Awards and the American Music Awards. It has been the broadcaster for the Grammys since 1973, though starting 2027, ABC will take over.

This year’s VMAs feature 26 first-time nominees. These include GENER8ION and Yung Lean for their work on “Storm,” with new names like the K-pop boy band CORTIS and singer Stella Lefty, who each have two nominations. Other notable debut nominees are Don Toliver, Kali Uchis, Noah Kahan, Olivia Dean, Tucker Wetmore, and Sienna Spiro.

The best dance category returns after seven years. Nominees are McRae’s “Nobody’s Girl,” Bebe Rexha and Faithless’ “New Religion,” Harry Styles’ “Aperture,” Lady Gaga and Doechii’s “Runway,” Madonna’s “Confessions II — The Film,” PinkPantheress’ “Stateside” featuring Larsson, and Slayyyter’s “Dance …”

Online fan voting began on Tuesday across 13 categories and will conclude on Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. Eastern and 3 p.m. Pacific. The best new artist category voting remains open during the show. An earlier version of this story contained a spelling error in the song “Runway” by Lady Gaga and Doechii.