Many awards at the 2026 MTV VMAs on Sunday, September 27 went pretty much as planned. We all knew Madonna was going to win Best Long Form Music Video for Confessions II — The Movie. Madonna was the first winner of the category in 1991 for The Immaculate collectionand a repeat win would be a nice bookend to her unprecedented VMA career. Sure enough, she won this award.
BTS’ three victories, capping a year of great comeback, were also expected.
But that doesn’t mean there weren’t gripes and surprises in the show, which lasted just over two hours.
Madonna opened the show in what was her first VMA performance in 23 years. It was her fifth time opening the show, which set a new VMA record.
There were two tributes to great deceased artists. Kacey Musgraves paid tribute to Dolly Parton. RAYE, SOMBR, Teddy Swims and Adam Lambert honored George Michael. Additionally, Nirvana, which disbanded following the suicide of singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain, received the video avant-garde award.
Taylor Swift received the VMA’s first artistic director honors. Additionally, the music video for Swift’s new single, “Patient Zero,” premiered at the awards show.
Hosted by Snoop Dogg, the VMAs aired live from Los Angeles on Sunday, September 27 (7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. PT) on CBS, simulcast on MTV, and streamed on Paramount+ (Premium) in the United States. The show will also be available worldwide the following day on Paramount+ and MTV. The VMAs were produced by Gunpowder & Sky. Van Toffler served as producer.
Here are some of the biggest snubs and surprises from the 2026 VMAs.
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Surprise: LISA wins the prize for best pop
LISA won Best Pop for “Dream,” a video featuring Japanese actor Kentaro Sakaguchi. She beat out, among others, Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift, who each won three times in the category. Grande was nominated for “Hate That I Made You Love Me”; Swift for “The Destiny of Ophelia”. Both of these songs were #1 hits on the Hot 100. “Dream” was not a hit in the United States, although it was a hit in many other territories around the world.
The Thai rapper, singer, dancer and actress is the second Asian pop act to win the Best Pop award. BTS won in 2020 for “On”.
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Snob: Bruno Mars loses the Big One again
Mars was nominated for video of the year for “I Just Might”, but lost to Swift for “The Fate of Ophelia”. Mars went from 0 to 8 in the most competitive category of the VMAs. The runner-up for having the worst record in this category at the VMAs is Drake, who went 0-6.
Moreover, this is the second time that Swift has topped Mars in this category. In 2015, she won her first prize in this category for “Bad Blood”, with Kendrick Lamar. Mars was nominated that year as the featured artist for “Uptown Funk!” » by Mark Ronson.
Mars won best R&B for “I Just Might.” This is his second victory in this category. Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open,” on which he teamed with Anderson .Paak, won the category in 2021.
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Surprise: Madonna beats Taylor Swift in 4 categories
Madonna has been a pop icon longer than Taylor Swift has been alive. Still, it was surprising that she beat Swift in four categories. Madonna beat Swift for artist of the year. Additionally, Madonna Confessions II beat Swift’s The life of a showgirl for best album. And Confessions II – The film also beat out Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” for best cinematography and best choreography.
Swift managed to beat Madonna in two categories: video of the year and best director. (Swift directed her own video. TORSO directed Madonna’s video, but the VMAs credit the artists for their technical category wins.)
Here’s another Madonna-related surprise. It was her first time winning Best Dance, an award that dates back to 1989. It was her seventh nomination in this category. Better late than never!
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Surprise: Bad Bunny wins the prize for best Latin… finally!
Bad Bunny’s “NUEVAYOL” won Best Latin. The surprise here is not that he won, but that he has never won in this category. It was his ninth nomination.
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Snob: Michael Jackson
Jackson’s name was not mentioned when Nirvana was presented with the Video Vanguard award. The award was simply called the Video Vanguard Award and not, as is sometimes the case, the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award.
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Surprise: So few awards given on air
We all knew that the focus would be more on performances than awards at this show. But the extent of this focus on performance remained surprising. Only six of the 23 competitive prizes were awarded during the two-hour broadcast. The other 17 were simply announced in a press release after the show’s conclusion.
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