{"id":913936,"date":"2026-09-29T10:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/913936\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T10:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:20:09","slug":"madonna-opens-vmas-with-sabrina-carpenter-and-charli-xcx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/913936\/","title":{"rendered":"Madonna Opens VMAs With Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMadonna<\/a> \u2014 the eternal Queen<\/a> of the MTV Video Music Awards<\/a> \u2014 burst onto the stage on Sunday with Sabrina Carpenter to sing \u201cBring Your Love,\u201d and that was just the beginning of a triumphant return to the awards show she helped build. Then Charli XCX joined her for their remix of \u201cDanceteria,\u201d with multiple celeb cameos. Madonna sang \u201cLike a Virgin\u201d\u00a0at the VMAs<\/a>\u2018 first show in 1984<\/a> but hadn\u2019t performed at the ceremony since 2003, when she infamously smooched both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.<\/p>\n

\n\tGuests during \u201cDanceteria\u201d \u2014\u00a0a performance built around a graffiti-laden bathroom stage set \u2014\u00a0 included Sombr (in an outrageous leather outfit), Julia Garner, Debi Mazar, Seth Rogen, Andrew Watt, Tony Ward, and Fab 5 Freddy. Both Mazar and Freddy are actually mentioned in Madonna\u2019s lyrics.<\/p>\n

\n\tMadonna leads the night with 13 nominations, thanks largely to the\u00a0short film she crafted<\/a>\u00a0for her celebrated new album,\u00a0Confessions II<\/a>, the long-awaited sequel to her 2005 album,\u00a0Confessions on a Dance Floor<\/a>. The film is up for Video of the Year, as well as a swath of other categories including Best Direction, Cinematography, and Choreography. The video\u2019s nod also anchors the returning Best Dance category, which was given out regularly for decades starting in 1989, but hasn\u2019t been awarded since 2019.<\/p>\n

\n\tMadonna and Carpenter\u2019s Confessions II track \u2014 which they debuted live in spectacular fashion during Carpenter\u2019s headlining set at Coachella<\/a> \u2014 also brought in nominations for Song of the Year and Best Collaboration. Among the nods, Madonna is up for Artist of the Year, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair took the stage once again to accept the VMA for Best Collaboration. In lieu of a proper speech, Madonna decided to share the story behind how she and Carpenter connected for the song. \u201cEverybody who knows me knows how impatient I am, and when five days passed, and I still didn\u2019t get connected with Sabrina, and didn\u2019t hear back from her about whether she wanted to do a song with me \u2014 five days \u2014 I DM\u2019d her,\u201d Madonna said. \u201cThis is a true story. She answered me back. Within weeks, we were in the studio together. It was fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tCarpenter laughed along at the call out, later clarifying, \u201cMy team replies. Just so everybody knows, they do respond to people, but I respond faster. So direct line to me is always the best way to get in contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tThe night ahead will see performances by Gunna<\/a>, Lisa<\/a>, Raye<\/a>, Shaboozey<\/a>, Gener8ion, Sienna Spiro, and Yung Lean. Kacey Musgraves<\/a> will also honor Dolly Parton<\/a> with a special tribute performance set, marking the country singer\u2019s first onstage appearance at the VMAs in five years. Raye, Sombr, and Teddy Swims will perform a tribute to George Michael,<\/a> who died nearly a decade ago. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSabrina Carpenter and Madonna at The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrancis Specker\/CBS<\/p>\n

\n\tTaylor Swift follows right behind Madonna with 11 nominations tonight. As for the other big categories at the VMAs, Artist of the Year will find Madonna and Swift competing against Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, Carpenter, and Morgan Wallen. And in Song of the Year, Madonna and Carpenter\u2019s \u201cBring Your Love\u201d will go up against BTS\u2019 \u201cSwim,\u201d Ella Langley\u2019s \u201cChoosin\u2019 Texas,\u201d Huntr\/x\u2019s \u201cGolden,\u201d Olivia Dean\u2019s \u201cMan I Need,\u201d PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson\u2019s \u201cStateside\u201d remix, and Raye\u2019s \u201cWhere Is My Husband!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Madonna \u2014 the eternal Queen of the MTV Video Music Awards \u2014 burst onto the stage on Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,1543,33184,43713,32947,311271],"class_list":["post-913936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-madonna","tag-mtv-video-music-awards","tag-mtv-vmas","tag-vmas","tag-vmas-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}