Madonna to open 2026 VMAs with first performance in 23 years

Madonna will open the 2026 MTV VMAs with her first performance at the awards in 23 years. She leads this year’s nominations with 11 nods.

Madonna is returning to the MTV Video Music Awards stage, and she is doing it the way only she can. The pop icon will open the 2026 VMAs with a live performance, marking her first appearance as a performer at the ceremony in 23 years.

The 2026 VMAs will take place on September 27 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, with Snoop Dogg hosting the ceremony. Madonna's return comes at a particularly significant moment in her career. She is the most nominated artist at this year's awards, with 11 nominations following the release of her latest album, Confessions II.

The performance will also bring Madonna back to the VMAs in a role she knows well. She last performed at the ceremony in 2003, when she opened the show alongside Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera in one of the most remembered performances in the awards' history.

Madonna returns to the VMAs after 23 years

Madonna has been closely associated with the VMAs since the ceremony's very first edition in 1984, when she performed Like a Virgin. Her relationship with the awards has produced some of the show's defining moments over the decades. She returned in 1990 for her elaborate Vogue performance, before the 2003 ceremony brought the now-famous performance with Spears and Aguilera.

Now, 23 years after her last VMA performance, Madonna will once again open the ceremony. The announcement was made by CBS and MTV on September 16, with the performance presented in partnership with Spotify.

Details of what Madonna will perform have not yet been announced. Her return comes shortly after the release of Confessions II, her latest studio album and the follow-up to 2005's Confessions on a Dance Floor. The album has also put her firmly back at the centre of this year's VMAs.

Madonna enters the ceremony as the night's leading nominee, with 11 nods. Her nominations include Artist of the Year, Video of the Year for Confessions II – The Film and Song of the Year for Bring Your Love, her collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter.

This is the third time Madonna has led the VMA nominations. She previously received nine nominations in both 1990, for Vogue, and 1998, for Ray of Light and Frozen.

Taylor Swift follows Madonna with nine nominations this year, while Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter have seven each. Bruno Mars, PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson have five nominations apiece.

Madonna already has 19 competitive VMA wins and received the Video Vanguard Award in 1986. She will now have the chance to add to that record on a night that begins with her back on the VMA stage.

Madonna's history with the VMAs stretches back more than four decades. Her 1984 performance of Like a Virgin helped establish the ceremony as a place where pop stars could create deliberately theatrical, unpredictable television. Six years later, she delivered her Vogue performance, drawing on imagery inspired by 18th-century France.

Then came 2003. Madonna opened that year's ceremony with Spears and Aguilera, performing Like a Virgin and Hollywood. The performance became one of the most discussed VMA moments of the early 2000s, particularly after Madonna kissed both younger pop stars on stage.

Her 2026 return therefore comes with a built-in piece of VMA history. She is not simply another performer on this year's line-up. She is returning to a ceremony with which her career has been intertwined since its beginning.

When are the 2026 MTV VMAs?

The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards will be held live from Los Angeles on Sunday, September 27. Snoop Dogg will host the ceremony, which marks the VMAs' return to Los Angeles for the first time since 2017. The show will air on CBS and be simulcast on MTV, with streaming available on Paramount+. In India, it will be streamed on Monday, September 28, 2026, at 5:00 am.