Madonna Leads 2026 MTV VMA Nominations With 11 Nods

MTV announced today (August 18th) the nominees for the 2026 Video Music Awards, which will be held LIVE on September 27th on CBS and Paramount+.

Madonna leads the nominations with 11, followed by Taylor Swift with 9.

At 68, Madonna has received her most nominations ever at the VMAs and the most since 1998, when the video for her song Ray of Light won Video of the Year, along with three other awards. Additionally, Frozen won Best Special Effects in a Video, which is now known as Best Visual Effects.

While Madonna leads the pack, first-time nominees GENER8ION and Yung Lean have secured three nominations for their collaborative work on STORM. Notably, they are the only new names in the Video of the Year category, which is otherwise filled with frequent VMA contenders including Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, Madonna, Sabrina Carpenter, and Taylor Swift.

Fans can vote every day at vote.mtv.com to help choose this year's winners.