A football game that ran long pushed the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards back on CBS on Sunday. The delay did not stop Madonna from taking over the night.
When the broadcast ended, the 68-year-old held seven trophies: Artist of the Year, Best Album, Best Collaboration, Best Dance, Best Cinematography, Best Choreography and Best Long Form Video.
Best Collaboration ended a long wait. Shared with Sabrina Carpenter, it was Madonna’s first VMAs win since 1999.
The duo beat five other nominees: Clipse, Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T and Malice for Chains & Whips, Shakira and Burna Boy for Dai Dai, Teyana Taylor and Lucky Daye’s Hard Part, PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson’s Stateside, and French Montana and Max B’s Ever Since U Left Me.
At the microphone, Madonna explained how the project began. “Everybody who knows me knows how impatient I am,” she said. Five days passed, she added, without a reply from Carpenter.
So she reached out directly. “I DM’d her,” Madonna said. “She answered me back, and I don’t know, within a week we were in the studio together. It was fabulous.”
Her Best Dance speech, for Confessions II – The Film, went differently. Charli XCX and Troye Sivan joined her onstage to collect the award.
Madonna’s first words concerned the equipment. “My microphone is too short!” she called out. She then drew both collaborators close, saying, “Safety in numbers.”
Next came the line that spread online. “I’m kind of unclear as to what this award is for. I guess it’s for the short film?” Charli XCX opened the announcement card.
Madonna closed by addressing the audience. “Dance is where everything happened for me in my life. If you love to dance, stand up… we’re all equal on the dance floor.” She then left the stage.
Earlier in the broadcast, she had opened the show.
Dressed in Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello, she wore a black satin trench coat over a red leotard, with knee-high boots. Carpenter played piano beneath her as she sang Bring Your Love.
Dancers then carried Madonna, coat removed, to a platform where a choir waited.
Charli XCX entered next for the Danceteria Afterhours remix. Sombr, Debi Mazar and Seth Rogen made cameo appearances, and a dancer lifted Madonna into the air.
Viewers reacted quickly on social media. Some accused Madonna of lip-syncing, and others noted her breathing during the set. One wrote, “MTV & CBS really fumbled Madonna tonight.”
Another user posted, “Mama is TIRED and out of breath on this MTV #VMAs stage.”
Supporters pushed back, and some called the set iconic. One fan wrote, “She’s 68, bravo to her for still being able to get up on stage and move it the way she did.”
The appearance came 23 years after Madonna kissed Britney Spears during the 2003 ceremony.
That show opened with Spears singing Like a Virgin as she rose from a wedding cake dressed as a bride, echoing Madonna’s 1984 VMAs performance.
Christina Aguilera then joined Spears onstage. Madonna arrived next and performed Hollywood, kissing Spears and then Aguilera.
The broadcast aired only the Spears-Madonna kiss, followed by a reaction shot of Justin Timberlake, Spears’s former boyfriend. The two women later recorded the single Me Against the Music.
Madonna arrived at this year’s ceremony on the strength of Confessions II, released July 3. The album is a sequel to her 2005 release Confessions on a Dance Floor, and it drew acclaim from critics and fans.
The Daily Mail contacted representatives for Madonna for comment and had not received a response.
