Madonna Leads the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards Nominations

The nominations for the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards were announced on Tuesday, with Madonna leading the pack. The pop star has received nominations across every decade of her career, boasting 19 competitive MTV VMA wins. In 1986, she was the first solo female artist to earn the Video Vanguard Award. For this year’s ceremony, she is up for 11 awards, including video, artist, and song of the year, along with best collaboration, dance, direction, art direction, cinematography, editing, choreography, and visual effects.

If Madonna were to win all her nominations, she could tie with Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, who each have 30 wins. Eminem holds the record for the most VMAs won by a male artist, with 15.

Taylor Swift follows closely with nine nominations. A win for Swift would make her the most-awarded artist in VMA history. Her nominations include video and artist of the year, as well as 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 have five each. Blackpink’s Lisa has four nominations, while Shakira, Tate McRae, GENER8ION, and Yung Lean are tied with three.

The nominees for the artist of the year category include Grande, Mars, Carpenter, and Morgan Wallen, alongside Madonna and Swift.

The video of the year category features Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia,” 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.

The two-hour awards show will be broadcast live on CBS on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern and 4:30 p.m. Pacific from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It will also be simulcast on MTV and available for streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S. Global streaming will start the next day on Paramount+ and MTV.

This year, the VMAs have 26 first-time nominees, including GENER8ION and Yung Lean for their “Storm” collaboration, the K-pop group CORTIS, and viral singer Stella Lefty. Other newcomers include Don Toliver, Kali Uchis, Noah Kahan, Olivia Dean, Tucker Wetmore, and Sienna Spiro.

The best dance category is back for the first time in seven years. Nominees include “Nobody’s Girl” by McRae, “New Religion” by Bebe Rexha and Faithless, “Aperture” by Harry Styles, “Runway” by Lady Gaga and Doechii, “Confessions II – The Film” by Madonna, “Stateside” by PinkPantheress with Larsson, and “Dance …” by Slayyyter.

Fan voting started online Tuesday for 13 categories and concludes on Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. Eastern and 3 p.m. Pacific. Voting for the best new artist category will stay active during the show.