Madonna leads 2026 MTV VMA nominations with 11 nods ahead of Taylor Swift

Madonna leads 2026 nominations tally

MTV announced the nominations for the 2026 Video Music Awards on Tuesday, August 18, 2026. Madonna led all artists with 11 nominations, reaching a personal career high that exceeded her previous peaks of nine nominations in 1990 for "Vogue" and 1998 for "Ray of Light". The singer's nominations center on her 14-minute project "Confessions II - The Film", which received a nomination for Video of the Year alongside technical bids for Best Direction, Cinematography, Art Direction, Editing, Choreography, and Visual Effects. Madonna also earned nominations for Artist of the Year and Best Dance, a category returning to the VMAs for the first time since 2019. Her collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter, "Bring Your Love", added nominations in Song of the Year and Best Collaboration.

Top pop contenders and category fields

Taylor Swift placed second on the nominations list with nine bids, primarily for tracks from her album "The Life of a Showgirl". Swift's music video for "The Fate of Ophelia" is nominated for Video of the Year, Best Pop, and several technical categories, while the video for "Opalite" received a nomination for Best Direction. Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter followed with seven nominations each. Bruno Mars, PinkPantheress, and Zara Larsson earned five nominations apiece, while LISA received four nominations and Olivia Rodrigo secured two. Women represent seven of the eight most-nominated acts this year. In Artist of the Year, Grande received her sixth nomination and Swift received her fifth. They compete alongside Mars in his third nomination, Carpenter in her second, Wallen in his second, and Madonna in her first. The category features no hip-hop contenders for the first time since its establishment in 2017.

Video of the Year field and historical context

The Video of the Year category features three past winners: Madonna, Swift, and Grande with "hate that i made you love me". They compete against Bruno Mars with "I Just Might", Sabrina Carpenter with "Tears", and "STORM", an audiovisual collaboration by Gener8ion (French DJ Surkin and director Romain Gavras) starring Swedish rapper Yung Lean as a boarding school student. Madonna's 14-minute entry follows previous long-form category winners, including Swift's 15-minute "All Too Well: The Short Film" in 2022 and Grande's 26-minute "Brighter Days Ahead" in 2025. Swift holds 30 lifetime VMAs, tying Beyoncé for the most in the event's history, while Madonna holds 20 career trophies according to multiple sources, though some records cite 19.

Voting timeline and broadcast details

Best New Artist nominees include Bella Kay, CORTIS, Magnus Ferrell, Malcolm Todd, Myles Smith, Sienna Spiro, and Stella Lefty. Online fan voting covers 13 categories and closes September 25, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. ET, though Best New Artist voting extends into the live ceremony. The awards show will air live from Los Angeles on Sunday, September 27, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. ET and 4:30 p.m. PT on CBS and MTV, with streaming on Paramount+. Gunpowder & Sky produces the show, with Van Toffler producing alongside executive producers Jesse Ignjatovic, Barbara Bialkowski, Bruce Gillmer, Barry Barclay, and Floris Bauer.