![\"Cardi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2283783818-e1787151299164.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe MTV Video Music Awards will give out the lifetime achievement award on Sept. 27. <\/p>\n
\t9\/4\/2026\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tCardi B accepts the Best Female Hip Hop Artist award onstage during the BET Awards 2026 at Peacock Theater on June 28, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tParas Griffin\/Getty Images for BET<\/p>\n
\n\tWith Labor Day approaching and the end of summer officially imminent, one of the saving graces of this page of the 2026 calendar will be coming in three and a half weeks, with the airing of the 43rd annual MTV Video Music Awards. <\/p>\n
\n\tNominees for this year\u2019s awards <\/a>were announced on Aug. 18, with the biggest nominees including superstars Ariana Grande (seven, including artist of the year and video of the year for \u201cHate That I Made You Love Me\u201d), Sabrina Carpenter (also seven, including AOTY and VOTY for \u201cTears\u201d) and Bruno Mars (five, including AOTY and VOTY for \u201cI Just Might\u201d). But the biggest nominee of all was perhaps the most legendary pop star in VMAs history: Madonna, with 11 nominations \u2014\u00a0including AOTY and VOTY for her Confessions II \u2014\u00a0The Film\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and a good chance to add to her 19 career wins at the awards.<\/p>\n \n\tBut what has yet to be revealed \u2014\u00a0with the announcement expected next week, potentially as early as Tuesday \u2014\u00a0is the recipient perhaps the most prestigious VMA of them all: the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award. That honor is handed out annually to a career great in the field of music video, whose \u201coutstanding contributions\u201d and \u201cprofound impact\u201d on the form MTV deems worthy of rewarding for its highest honor. Winners during the award\u2019s early days in the mid-\u201980s included proto-MTV icons like The Beatles, as well as influential video auteurs like Julien Temple and Wayne Isham. But in recent years, the award has typically gone to a pop star, usually one with a decade or two of hits to their name (which they can draw from in a much-hyped, career-spanning performance on the actual broadcast).<\/p>\n \n\tWho might be the most logical candidate to take home the honor in 2026? Here are the nine artists Billboard forecasts as being the most likely.<\/p>\n \tTaylor Swift<\/p>\n \n\tFor as much as Taylor Swift clearly still loves the VMAs \u2014\u00a0attending them, presenting at them, making surprise announcements at them and certainly accepting awards at them \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s been a while since she\u2019s actually performed at them. Or at any other award show, for that matter: Since doing a Folklore medley at the 2021 Grammys, she\u2019s mostly kept her performances to her own Eras Tour and a few intimate live engagements. That half-decade hiatus from performing at award shows certainly makes her a long shot for this year\u2019s Video Vanguard \u2014\u00a0not to mention that she may already have her eyes set on next year\u2019s Oscars as the site for her return to the awards-show stage, as she is likely to be in best song contention with her \u201cI Knew It, I Knew You\u201d from Toy Story 5. <\/p>\n \n\tBut the timing of this year\u2019s awards \u2014 and Swift\u2019s continued affection for the ceremonies that inspired many of her career\u2019s most iconic moments, for better and\/or worse \u2014\u00a0makes a Taylor Swift Video Vanguard performance too tempting to leave off our predictions entirely. After all, Sept. 27 is just a few weeks before the 20th anniversary of Swift\u2019s self-titled debut album \u2014 which, if you believe the fan theories<\/a>, could be receiving its own Taylor\u2019s Version release around then. What better way to promote (or even to reveal) that reissue than with a full-circle VMAs moment?<\/p>\n \n\tAgain, a long shot. But you can bet it\u2019s one the Swifties in your life have already spent weeks trying to talk themselves into being a real possibility \u2014 and not totally without reason. <\/p>\n \tOlivia Rodrigo<\/p>\n \n\tOlivia Rodrigo, already? OK, probably not: Giving a 23-year-old \u2014\u00a0with only three albums and probably not even a dozen total videos under her belt \u2014 a lifetime achievement award would likely strain credibility a tad. Then again, Olivia Rodrigo is hardly just any 23-year-old: She\u2019s one with three Billboard 200-topping universally celebrated albums already to her credit, each with at least one Billboard Hot 100-besting single on it, and a number of widely beloved music videos with a defined and influential aesthetic between them. And of course, this year has probably been Rodrigo\u2019s biggest yet, with a nearly 500,000-unit-moving first week for critically adored third album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, three long-lasting hits in \u201cDrop Dead,\u201d \u201cThe Cure\u201d and \u201cStupid Song\u201d and now even her own music festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tIs that all enough to make her a likely Video Vanguard recipient in 2026? Not too likely, but not impossible \u2014\u00a0particularly if giving her their most prestigious award would end up being the one thing that convinced her to take the stage at this year\u2019s awards. Certainly, a full crowd singing along to \u201cDrivers License\u201d and \u201cGood 4 U\u201d is not going to care too much about Olivia Rodrigo not satisfying some imaginary eligibility waiting period first. (And while Rodrigo would be the youngest-ever winner of the award, it wouldn\u2019t be by much: Janet Jackson won it in 1990 at the age of 24.) <\/p>\n \tBruno Mars<\/p>\n \n\tBruno feels a pretty ideal fit for the Video Vanguard, having been a massive hitmaker for over 15 years \u2014\u00a0as well as a consummate performer and entertainer \u2014\u00a0while remaining as big as ever in 2026. (He\u2019s a four-time winner at the VMAs this decade alone, including just two last year: best collaboration (for \u201cDie With a Smile\u201d with Lady Gaga) and best song (for \u201cAPT.\u201d with Ros\u00e9).) He also might be thinking Grammy campaign for his latest full length The Romantic. Why this low, then? Well, he\u2019s got a tour date on Sept. 27 at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado \u2014\u00a0which means if he\u2019s gonna do a Video Vanguard performance and\/or award acceptance, it\u2019ll have to be pre-filmed and\/or remote, and the VMAs usually like to keep that one live in the building. But Bruno would be a big-enough get for this that it wouldn\u2019t be shocking to see MTV make an exception for him.<\/p>\n \tEd Sheeran<\/p>\n \n\tIt feels like Ed Sheeran will end up doing this one of these years \u2014\u00a0he\u2019s got 15 years of hits, some very popular music videos (and a pair of VMA wins, including artist of the year in 2017), and both a catalog and performance style that would lend itself to a memorable Video Vanguard showing. Unclear if there\u2019s any particular reason why 2026 would be the year, since his latest album (2025\u2019s Play) is now a year in the rearview and there\u2019s nothing new immediately on the horizon \u2014\u00a0but he is in the midst of his latest global trek (The Loop Tour), and he will already be in the northeast on Sept. 27, following the second of his two dates at Boston\u2019s Gillette Stadium on the 26th.<\/p>\n \tCharli xcx<\/p>\n \n\tCharli is at once both a neat and an oblong fit for the Video Vanguard \u2014 she\u2019s been a pop star for a decade and a half, with plenty of unforgettable videos over that timespan, and a total commitment to performance that would make her a natural for the VMAs stage. And yet: Outside of the 2014 pre-show, she\u2019s never performed at the VMAs in her career, having spent only brief spells at the level of top 40 hitmaker traditionally invited to the show. (She\u2019s also only won once at the awards \u2014\u00a0with \u201cGuess\u201d taking the video for good award in 2025 \u2014\u00a0and went nearly a decade in between nominations, from 2014 to 2022).<\/p>\n \n\tThe motivation could still very well be there on both sides to make a Charli xcx Video Vanguard win and performance happen \u2014\u00a0and with Charli kicking off her much-anticipated Music, Fashion, Film Tour next week, the timing might be right as well. It would just require some collective ignoring of the dissonance of MTV treating Charli like a legacy performer at the awards, when she has only a fairly minor VMAs legacy to speak of. <\/p>\n \tMadonna<\/p>\n \n\tBut wait\u2026 didn\u2019t Madonna win this award already? Sure did: 40 years ago exactly, in fact, at the third-ever VMAs in 1986. But given what an incredible late-career success her 2026 album Confessions II has ended up being \u2014\u00a0leading to her 11 nominations at this year\u2019s awards \u2014\u00a0and given that in the past four decades, Madonna has achieved enough to merit this award several times over, we wonder if MTV isn\u2019t trying to figure out a way to give her the honor a second time. Naming her the Video Vanguard GOAT, perhaps? Giving her co-billing on the award\u2019s name alongside Michael Jackson? We can\u2019t guess exactly, but some honor doubling down on her \u201986 Vanguard win would be plenty fitting for arguably the artist who\u2019s meant the most to the VMAs in the show\u2019s 43-year history.<\/p>\n \tCardi B<\/p>\n \n\tOn the one hand, it\u2019d be a little strange to give Video Vanguard to an artist who technically has even fewer official studio albums than Olivia Rodrigo. But despite the relatively scant studio output, Cardi B has been a top-flight hitmaker for nearly a whole decade now, with multiple iconic videos to her credit and a nomination at the 2026 awards (in best hip-hop, for \u201cSafe\u201d with Kehlani). That album was a year ago, and Cardi\u2019s off tour at the moment, but it still feels like an award that would make sense on both sides \u2014\u00a0giving MTV its first hip-hop Video Vanguard winner since Nicki Minaj in 2022 with another top-flight star performer, and allowing Cardi a nice spotlight moment going into a potential 2027 Grammys campaign.<\/p>\n \tBTS<\/p>\n \n\tBTS recently wrapped the North American leg of its Arirang World Tour \u2014\u00a0but could the Bangtan Boys stick around for one more performance before heading abroad? It certainly feels like it could be the right moment for a victory lap, with the group reunited this year for a triumphant comeback album and tour and putting up some of the best numbers of its career in the process. BTS is up for two awards at this year\u2019s VMAs \u2014\u00a0song of the year and best K-pop, both for the Hot 100-topping \u201cSwim\u201d \u2014 so the septet might already be in the building anyway, and the crowd would undoubtedly get near-unprecedently hype for a BTS Video Vanguard medley that took them all the way from \u201cI Need U\u201d to \u201cNormal.\u201d (Not to mention that the group might be skipping the Grammys this year, after declining to submit<\/a> their music for consideration this year.) Besides, there\u2019s never been a K-pop winner of the award before, and BTS would be a fitting first for any number of reasons.<\/p>\n \tMiley Cyrus<\/p>\n \n\tWell, we called Miley Cyrus for this last year too,<\/a> and that ended up being wrong. But this year it feels just as likely, if not more so \u2014\u00a0like Taylor Swift, Cyrus has also been in something of a reflective mood this year, with the 20th anniversary of Hannah Montana giving her extra reason for such looking-back. And unlike Swift, she actually now already has a new release on the calendar: Bass Persuades, due for a release on Sept. 16, a week and a half before the VMAs. Miley\u2019s an icon of pop music, pop culture and the VMAs specifically; she\u2019s gonna get this award one of these years, and this year would make a lot of sense to finally be the one.<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n \t<\/a><\/p>\n Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tThe Daily\t\t<\/p>\n A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry<\/p>\n \t\tBy providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and our Privacy Policy<\/a>.![\"Billboard](\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-billboard-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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