Madonna Opens MTV Video Music Awards With Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx, Plus Sombr, Debi Mazar and More

Madonna made her return to the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, closing a 23-year absence from the ceremony by kicking off the broadcast with a pair of duets alongside Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx. The show, delayed roughly 20 minutes because an NFL game ran long, opened with the pop legend seated atop a piano while Carpenter accompanied her. Clad in a black waistcoat and knee-high boots, Madonna exchanged verses with Carpenter, who was dressed in a sparkling outfit and beret. Staged at a venue packed with music industry heavyweights, the 2026 VMAs added another milestone to a career that now spans more than four decades.

After making her way down the stairs, Madonna shed her coat to expose a red-and-black corset, and dancers hoisted her onto a table that rolled past a choir of audience members wearing white veils. She then came back to the main stage, which had been reconstructed as the bathroom set from the "Danceteria" music video. Charli xcx stepped out of one of the stalls as the freshly released "Danceteria Afterhours" remix played, with Madonna joined by actresses Debi Mazar and Julia Garner. Quick cameos from Seth Rogen, Andrew Watt and Sombr broke up the two-song sequence before it wrapped. "Make some noise for Madonna!" Charli yelled as the performance closed. For context, the VMAs have long served as a launchpad for pop's most talked-about moments, and Madonna's willingness to share the spotlight with current stars like Carpenter and Charli xcx signals how deliberately she has positioned herself alongside a newer generation rather than apart from it.

Madonna's VMA history stretches back to the show's very first broadcast in 1984, when her "Like a Virgin" performance instantly became a pop-culture touchstone. The singer, whose 2005 album "Confessions on a Dance Floor" sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, went on to deliver "Express Yourself" in 1989, "Vogue" in 1990, "Ray of Light" with Lenny Kravitz in 1998 and her most recent VMAs turn in 2003 alongside Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. She also topped all artists in nominations for the 2026 VMAs with 13, ahead of Taylor Swift's 11, Sabrina Carpenter's nine and Ariana Grande's eight. Van Toffler, a longtime VMAs producer, told Variety days before the show that her comeback was simply a matter of time. "Well, look, we can deny it as much as we want, but Madonna is the M in MTV," he said. "I knew it the day I started there. She is the queen of MTV. She makes great videos. She's provocative. She always pushed us, and this year's performance will be no exception."

The appearance put a cap on a breakthrough year for the pop titan, who released her 15th album, "Confessions II," in July. The record, her first in seven years, served as a sequel to her seismic 2005 effort "Confessions on a Dance Floor," bringing her back together with producer Stuart Price across 16 tracks that fused modern dance music with nods to her roots and backstory. Madonna launched the album cycle by debuting lead single "Bring Your Love" during a surprise appearance at Carpenter's Coachella headlining set in April. In the months that followed, she staged a string of high-profile events, including a rave at West Hollywood's Abbey and a Grindr-backed performance in New York City's Times Square. Once "Confessions II" arrived, she put out new versions of several tracks, among them "Love Sensation" featuring Kylie Minogue and "Danceteria Afterhours" with Charli xcx, which landed just days before the VMAs. Notably, "Confessions on a Dance Floor" remains one of the best-selling dance-pop albums of the 2000s, and its sequel's chart performance will be closely watched as a measure of whether Madonna can still command the same commercial force in a streaming-dominated era.