Madonna leads the field for the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards with 11 nominations, putting the pop icon within reach of a record-tying sweep when the ceremony airs next month.
The nominations, announced this week, put Madonna up for Video of the Year, Artist of the Year and Song of the Year alongside nods for Best Collaboration, Best Dance, Best Direction, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Choreography and Best Visual Effects. Her nominated clip, "Confessions II — The Film," faces off in the top category against Taylor Swift's "The Fate of Ophelia," Ariana Grande's "Hate That I Made You Love Me," Bruno Mars' "I Just Might," Sabrina Carpenter's "Tear" and Yung Lean collaborator GENER8ION's "Storm."
Swift follows with nine nominations, while Grande and Carpenter each earned seven. The four artists' dominance of this year's ballot underscores how thoroughly music-video spectacle has returned to the center of pop marketing after years in which streaming numbers and short-form clips drew more attention than the video as an art form.
Back in Los Angeles
This year's ceremony returns to Los Angeles for the first time since 2017, with the two-hour broadcast set for Sunday, Sept. 27, at the Peacock Theater. MTV has said the show will air on CBS at 7:30 p.m. Eastern and simulcast across MTV and Paramount+, a distribution push the network has used in recent years to shore up live viewership for an award show that once defined appointment television.
A host and performer lineup had not been announced as of Wednesday, though MTV has historically unveiled that slate in the weeks leading up to the show.
If Madonna sweeps all 11 of her nominations, she would tie the single-ceremony win ratio set by Beyoncé and Taylor Swift in prior years, though voters have rarely awarded any artist a clean sweep at the VMAs, which are decided by a mix of fan voting and an internal MTV panel depending on category.
The nominations arrive amid a broader late-career resurgence for Madonna, whose "Confessions II" project has drawn both acclaim and debate from critics over its blend of archival footage and new visual concepts. Winners will be announced live during the September broadcast.
