The VMAs: The One Night When MTV Pretends to be MTV

Madonna, Snoop, Nirvana, Taylor, and the ghost of the Nineties loomed large at the annual awards show

The star of the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards? That would be the Nineties, which loomed over over the entire night. The ceremony was hosted by Snoop Dogg, with a Video Vanguard tribute to Nirvana. Madonna was the night’s big winner and opening performer. There was a running comedy gag about the Spice Girls. Everybody sang “Freedom ’90.” The whole show buzzed with that Nineties energy—it promised to be a big night for Sir Mix-a-Lot and Sophie B. Hawkins. But it’s understandable, since those were the glory days for MTV, and that’s when the VMAs reigned supreme as the TV party of the year, every year.

This was the first year the VMAs got a new network, airing on CBS, as well as Paramount+ and whatever’s left of MTV. So the Nineties theme looked like a way to remind the new corporate bosses of why MTV used to rule as the musical epicenter of pop culture. Yet this show had plenty of highlights. Madonna time-traveling into disco sleaze in “Danceteria” with Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX. Taylor Swift premiering the “Patient Zero” murder-thriller video. Nirvana doing absolutely nothing. If this turns out to be the last VMAs ever, they went out in style.

Snoop killed it as the host—he’s played this party a bunch of times, even won a few Moonmen, so he’s an O.G. who knows how it works. He just held court as Snoop, laaaaaaid back. “Tonight is going to be the biggest party the VMAs has ever seen,” he promised. “It wouldn’t be a Snoop Dogg party if I didn’t provide some of that special sticky icky icky.” The Doggfather was wearing VMAs merch all night, which I believe is a first, but it says a lot about him he can look cool in a Moonman jacket.

So what the hell happened with that Nirvana tribute? They didn’t play a note. They didn’t say a word, at least the two who aren’t Krist Novoselic. Why did this even happen? Chuck D declared, “I have the distinct honor of recognizing a band that changed the course of music, Nirvana.” (Fun fact: Chuck gave this same award to the Beastie Boys in 1998.) Novoselic gave an oddly professional speech about the genius of Kurt Cobain. There was a montage of Kurt talking about his videos—it was so cool to hear him say his personal fave was the Anton Corbijn clip for “Heart-Shaped Box,” not just their best video but the most soulful tune they wrote, and one of the realest songs about marriage ever.

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Pat Smear lit up a cigarette and smoked it onstage, which was awesome. (You can take the boy out of the Germs, but you can’t take the Germs out of the boy.) It was the most authentically Nirvana moment of this whole tribute, which was so weirdly muted. It was enough to make you wish Courtney showed up to raise hell with Madonna and Kurt Loder. (That trio was the life of the party at the 1995 VMAs.) But it felt like a missed opportunity that we didn’t get to hear the surviving trio play a song or two, perhaps with Raye singing “Territorial Pissings” or Sabrina doing “Milk It.”

The Nirvana tribute did inspire the night’s most comical achievement in sarcastic clapping: Charli half-slapping her left thigh during Krist’s speech, with her sulkiest “Can I go home now?” face. The runner-up: Tyla, who gave one hilariously grudging slow-motion semi-clap when Snoop called Taylor Swift’s name. (She was sitting right behind Lisa, who practically had Swiftie apoplexy.)

Madonna made her long-awaited return to the VMAs, performing for the first time in 23 years. She’s always owned this show, ever since the very first time it aired in 1984, where she rolled on the floor in her white bridal gown to sing “Like a Virgin,” a legendary moment that has defined the VMAs ever since. But she hasn’t played on the show since 2003, when she reprised “Like a Virgin” while swapping spit with Britney Spears. So it makes sense she kicked off the show with Sabrina Carpenter, who could have been the baby born from that kiss. Sabrina (in her black beret) played the piano, while Madonna writhed on top of it. 

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It really took off when Charli XCX strutted in for “Danceteria,” set in the famous early-eighties NYC disco. This party had everything, with Madonna and Charli rocking in the men’s room, filled with club people. Over here, Sombr as a black-leather stud. Over there, Debi Mazar, Madonna’s eternally cool pal from the Danceteria days. Fab Five Freddie. Julia Garner, in the black corset and haircut from “Open Your Heart.” Tony Ward. Andrew Watt. Wait … Seth Rogen? What’s he doing here? But everyone’s welcome. As Madonna kept singing, “Everybody here is a work of art.” She made it all feel like a musical autobiography. This was not just the highlight of the night—it was honestly one of the great performances in the history of the VMAs.

Raye did a splashy performance in bare feet, showing off her mighty pipes on “I Will Overcome” and “Where is My Husband!” She also inspired a warm intro from her fan Snoop, who said he constantly listens to her, “whether I’m chillin’ in the studio or blazing something amazing.” Bruno Mars sang his ladies-choice slow-dance smoocher “Dance With Me” in a cowboy suit, with one of the night’s only guitar solos. Sierra Spiro won Best New Artist, about an hour after she sang “Great Expectations.” BTW, every single winner performed on the show (or premiered a video). Coincidences are awesome!

Kacey Musgrave’s tribute to Dolly Parton was understated and elegant, normally the last two adjectives you expect at the VMAs. It began with a clip of Dolly cracking jokes and introducing “I Will Always Love You,” until Kacey took over and sang it gorgeously, with just a pianist, under an icon of a butterfly. “Now that’s how you honor a legend,” Snoop said. “There’s nothing but love in this room for Miss Dolly Parton. We love you, Dolly. I said, if you love Dolly Parton, make some noise!”

Shaboozey and Gunna went back to the Wild West, in a 19th-century honky-tonk saloon. Shaboozey got up from the poker table to do “Cowgirl,” then ambled through the swinging doors for “High Noon,” with Gunna in a stagecoach. It was followed by a brief snippet of “Choosin’ Texas”—the only allusion all night to the year’s biggest hit, which has spent 23 weeks at Number One.

Taylor Swift won a new honor, the Artist Director Award, recognizing her achievements behind the camera, with a funny clip of her in silver body paint saying, “I have been the architect of my own chaos that I currently live in.” It’s a real coup for MTV to get her to show up for the VMAs, which she usually sidesteps, but she presented the hotly-awaited premiere of her new “Patient Zero” video. It’s a full-on Hollywood thriller, where Dakota Johnson slowly begins to realize that her husband Colin Farrell is a serial killer who poisons his young wives for their money. Murder is the case, as Snoop would say. It’s got an “All Too Well”-style dialogue scene, plus Cara Delevingne as (in Swift’s words) “the lusty other woman.”

The video has so many of Taylor’s favorite tropes—weddings that turn into a mess, metaphorically breaking glass, red wine spilling, mad women, chatty ghosts, symbolic houses. It’s like Vertigo meets “No Body, No Crime.” This whole video has to be her most Evermore-coded moment in years. “I wanted to incorporate elements of gothic ghost stories, true crime, psychological thrillers all in a setting I hadn’t really shot in much,” Swift said in a social-media post. “The house was a metaphor for the coldness of a relationship that’s faded and atrophied.”

Lisa blew it out with “Sawadika,” staging an elaborate big-budget action movie. She showed off her martial arts skills while rapping about the Lisa lifestyle. “I’m that bitch on your TV and my Ferrari indigo,” she chanted. “La Lalisa, la diva, sawadika, there she go!” She also won Best Pop Video, getting her Moonman from Teyana Taylor and sobbing, “All those late-night dreams brought me here today.” Yung Lean and Gener8tion did “Storm II,” a prep-school production that began with Lean smashing a Moonman on the ground and ended with him spitting ice cream into the camera. It had a stage full of dancers in school uniforms, with dazzling choreography by Damien Jalet, giving schoolboy realness.

There was a George Michael tribute, to promote his upcoming concert film. It was poignant to see a bunch of male hopefuls, in a pop world with little use for the boys, express nostalgia for an era when a male superstar like George Michael could happen. Sombr was wearing George’s actual leather jacket, singing “Faith” and “Father Figure” in buckets of black eyeliner. (He sounded great—but who exactly would look up to Sombr as a Father Figure? He’s a newborn!) Raye made “I Knew You Were Waiting for Me” sound like the most boring song in the universe, while Teddy Swims proved that “Careless Whisper” is a real difficult tune to sing.

But when Adam Lambert strutted out to do “Freedom ’90,” it was a new ballgame. Glambert rescued the tribute—the only singer who didn’t look one tiny bit nervous tackling this songbook, peacocking in a black-leather cape, and his confidence loosened everyone up onstage. It was kinda touching to see Paris Hilton singing along in the crowd—“Freeeedom! Freeeedom!”—although that might have been just award-show Stockholm Syndrome kicking in at the two-hour mark.

Madonna kept winning awards all night, including Artist of the Year, then giving gloriously chaotic and freewheeling and messy speeches. You had to love when she won the Best Dance category, then said, “I’m kind of unclear what this award is for?” Now that’s our Madonna. But she careened between agonizing squirmers (“I’d like to thank my fingers,” yeesh) with deeply moving statements. “I came to New York to be a dancer,” she said. “Dance is where everything happened for me in my life. I came to life on the dance floor. I found my community on the dance floor. I fell in love with people on the dance floor.” Beautiful words—really summing up what her whole career is about.

Taylor Swift won Video of the Year for “The Fate of Ophelia,” not a shock considering it’s her longest-running Number One hit, at ten weeks. (Remember just under a year ago, the weekend she dropped The Life of a Showgirl, she packed theaters with a movie that was basically a doc on making this video?) This happened to be her 33rd Moonman, officially making her the biggest winner in the history of the VMAs. Snoop gallantly fanned her with the envelope as she approached the stage. (She had a lot to say to him, but I couldn’t lip-read it. Anyone know?)

Swift generously and unexpectedly dedicated her award to one of her heroes, “one person without whom this wouldn’t be happening, and that person is the ultimate Showgirl, Dolly Parton.” She gave a heartfelt and elegant tribute, to wild applause. “Man, she handled this thing with such grace and joy and love and gratitude for the fact that she got to do this,” she said. “I think we were all very lucky to share this planet with Dolly Parton for a time.” 

Taylor forgot to thank William Shakespeare, which was a surprise since “Ophelia” was the best Bard-themed Top Five hit since LFO rapped “Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole bunch of sonnets” 27 summers ago. (“I love Shakespeare,” she says in her Showgirl movie. “It holds up! It’s actually not overhyped!”) But hey, all’s well that ends well.

Note: MTV no longer gives out the Global Icon Award, which will never recover from the fact that they just gave it to noted humanitarian Diddy three years ago. (And the Video Vanguard award used to be named after Michael Jackson, until that stopped for similar reasons.) 

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As you probably know, MTV stopped playing music or promoting the VMAs eons ago. After Paramount Skydance erased the MTV online archives last year, there’s hardly any links left to the old Music Television network, the place where Snoop Dogg, Nirvana, Madonna, and George Michael went to become stars. The day before the VMAs, MTV was cranking reruns of Ridiculousness, and nothing but Ridiculousness, all day. Right before the VMAs, it was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a hilarious way to prove MTV’s 24/7 commitment to playing literally anything except music. (Though Jarvis Cocker and the Radiohead guys rock in that movie.) But for a few hours every year, the VMA bash is when MTV decides to cosplay as MTV for a night—and the Nineties glow of this year’s model made that clearer than ever.

Snoop had the final word, reminding us all of the three most important things: “Show love, spread love, give love. That’s the end of our show.” He added, “You ain’t gotta go home… Yeah, you do. Good night.” Can Snoop keep hosting this award show every year from now on? Please? Let’s hope so. Guess we’ll have to just chill, till the next episode.