Maxwell ReedOn a night meant to celebrate the best and brightest in music today, across many different genres, the MTV Video Music Awards proceeded to focus instead on the best and brightest of pop music’s past. It felt less like the Video Music Awards and more like the Video Madonna Awards.
The 2026 VMAs felt dominated by Madonna, who opened the night with a multi-song performance of tracks from her newest album and then won three on-stage awards, her first-ever wins for Best Collaboration, Best Dance and Artist of the Year.
There’s no denying that her 15th studio album, CONFESSIONS II, has been a huge return to form for the 69-year-old Madonna. It is her best-received album by fans and critics alike since 2005’s Confessions on a Dancefloor, but she is nowhere near a true contender for Artist of the Year, especially for an award show focusing on music videos.
Sabrina Carpenter, who was part of the Best Collaboration-winning “Bring Your Love” with Madonna, had a much more prominent visual year on her own. Her music videos “Manchild” and the Best Pop-nominated “House Tour” racked up YouTube views in comparison to “Bring Your Love”, with “Manchild” having over 200 million while her Madonna collaboration has yet to breach the 14 million mark.
After Madonna’s seven VMA wins last Sunday, she now has the third most of all time (behind Taylor Swift and Beyoncé) with 26 in total. Should Madonna be one of the most awarded artists in VMAs history? Absolutely. Would the 2026 VMAs have been better off if some of the younger, up-and-coming artists breaking new ground in the medium of music videos received the same recognition? Yes, absolutely.
It wasn’t just Madonna taking up so much space, though. Taylor Swift received two on-stage awards, including the first-ever Artist Director Honors, and premiered the music video for her newly released single “Patient Zero” live during the show.
The biggest snub of the night for me was the lack of any on-stage wins for PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson’s dance-pop smash “Stateside.” The music video, which has been watched just over 100 million times on YouTube, made “Stateside” into the surprise hit that it has been globally this year, and it absolutely should’ve won Best Collaboration over the aforementioned “Bring Your Love”.
GENER8ION, a French duo including music producer Surkin and director Romain Gavras, had their music video “STORM” with the Swedish rapper Yung Lean receive four nominations, including a surprise Video of the Year nod. “STORM” is a 7-minute music video set in a British boys’ school in 2034 with truly fantastic sequencing and choreography. The two artists even performed the song live for the first time ever during the ceremony, and yet it received no on-stage or off-stage wins. Taylor Swift or Madonna took home all four awards.
GENER8ION and Yung Lean’s collaboration winning an on-stage award would’ve been a great way for the VMAs to shine a light on a contemporary act with a viral music video, who many people watching the show were not familiar with. Instead, it gave more time to artists who do not need any more recognition.
The award categories that were announced on-stage weren’t the only problem. Many prominent awards were not shown at all. The only two genre-specific awards shown on-stage were Best Pop and Best Dance, while other genres such as hip-hop, country, alternative and Latin weren’t shown on-stage. Song of the Year, which went to BTS’ “Swim”, was also not shown on-stage.
What took up so much time instead of those awards, then, you may ask? Well, a whole lot of tributes and honorary awards. I already mentioned Swift’s Artist Director Honors, but there was also Nirvana’s Video Vanguard Award, along with live performances honoring Dolly Parton and George Michael.
I am not suggesting that artists who have passed should not be honored. But sometimes, it gets to the point where it is taking away from the actual awards part of award shows. And not only that, but how they went about honoring those legends of music was quite odd.
Dolly Parton unfortunately passed away just last month, yet she was only honored with a performance of one song, “I Will Always Love You” by country singer Kacey Musgraves. George Michael, on the other hand, had seven different singers, including sombr, RAYE and Teddy Swims, perform 5 different songs to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his 1987 solo debut, Faith.
The George Michael tribute was used to promote the release of a live album and feature-length film later this year, taking what could’ve been just a celebration of a pop icon into an advertisement. Dolly Parton being honored with just one song felt like a slap in the face, especially when the VMAs decided not to show their Best Country award on stage.
While there were some great performances, such as LISA’s new single “SaWaDiKa,” released earlier this month, or RAYE’s “I Will Overcome” and “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!,” the focus on acts of pop music’s past and the lack of actual awards given out contributed to an overall lackluster show.
The VMAs don’t seem to be what they used to be. The focus used to be entirely on new music releases and all different genres of awards, and now, it is just on tributes and honorary awards. It wasn’t the VMAs for me; it was the VMAs for my parents, and if that keeps up, I can’t see myself, or other young adults, continuing to watch for much longer.
