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The 2026 VMAs ran a little over two hours with commercials, which left room for far fewer current-single performances than in past years and a heavier load of tributes. Billboard notes that the streaming data bore this out the next day: the people who did get to play a hit got a lift. Here are the sets that defined Sunday night (Sept. 27), and the ones that stalled.
Madonna turns a public restroom into a stage
Pitchfork and Billboard agree on the best of it. Madonna opened the show, her first VMAs performance in 23 years, sitting on a Yamaha piano with Sabrina Carpenter at the keys for “Bring Your Love,” then built through a gospel-choir segue into the “Danceteria Afterhours” remix, set in a row of bathroom stalls and sinks. Charli xcx spat her come-up story, and the cameos came fast: Sombr, Seth Rogen, Julia Garner, Debi Mazar and Fab 5 Freddy, per Billboard's ranking. (Our recap of the opening and her Artist of the Year speech has the quotes.)
LISA, first solo K-pop act on the stage
LISA performed “Sawadika” for the first time live, right after taking Best Pop for “Dream.” Pitchfork notes she's the first K-pop artist to perform at the VMAs as a solo act, and the set played up the song's boxing theme: more than a dozen dancers, fistfights, and a street cart that carried her through a city. Billboard describes the Bangkok skyline behind her and a tuk-tuk spinning doughnuts while she rapped. “All those late night dreams brought me here today,” she said in her acceptance speech, per Rolling Stone, which also reports that the song is the first look at her Press Play EP, out Oct. 23. (More on her fall in our LISA explainer.)
Two tributes, two reactions
Kacey Musgraves's “I Will Always Love You” for Dolly Parton was pre-taped, because she was playing Nashville's Bridgestone Arena that night, Rolling Stone says. It opened with an old clip of Parton herself with Musgraves harmonizing on the last lines, then Musgraves took over alone at the piano. Billboard allows that “I Will Always Love You” is nearly impossible to cover, but still calls it a touching moment, while Pitchfork says she sang with “full lungs and a gentle touch.” Musgraves has been paying tribute to Parton on tour, telling the crowd at Madison Square Garden, “The world definitely lost a light, and it’s hard for me to talk about.”
The George Michael tribute split critics. Pitchfork called it “messy,” with a “perplexing lineup.” Billboard thought the opposite: when an all-star tribute hits all the right notes, who cares about a news peg? Sombr, in a customized version of the jacket Michael wore on the Faith Tour, sold “Faith” and “Father Figure,” Raye took “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me),” Teddy Swims did “Careless Whisper” in purple light, and Adam Lambert closed with “Freedom! ’90.” The hook, per Rolling Stone, is the 40th anniversary of Michael's Faith era: a live album, The Faith Tour, is out Nov. 6 and a film opens Dec. 11.
Where the broadcast stumbled
Not everything landed. Bruno Mars's “Dance With Me” was pre-recorded from his tour, which Billboard says looked like a clip off someone's social feed rather than an awards-show event. Yung Lean and Gener8ion's “Storm II” was a faithful recreation of the viral Romain Gavras video with Damien Jalet's choreography; Billboard praises the dancers but says it brought little new for anyone who had seen the video, and Rolling Stone notes that Yung Lean smashed a Moon Person at the start and spat a blue ice cream cone into the lens at the end. Shaboozey and Gunna's “Cowgirl” and “High Noon” had, per Pitchfork, a massive burning building and an empty horse-drawn carriage, and Billboard liked the saloon-brawl staging.
Read moreLISA’s Big Fall, Explained: Always Lalisa, Press Play and a Vegas First
And for viewers at home, the night began late: the VMAs hit CBS and MTV 22 minutes behind schedule because the Cowboys-Ravens game ran long, Billboard reports.
The ones to watch again
RAYE came with the mic turned on and the shoes kicked off, opening with a bit of “I Will Overcome” in a white fur coat before shedding it for “Where Is My Husband!” in red. And Sienna Spiro stood on a giant turntable in a metal-plated dress and let her voice and a live band do the work, with a sizable gap between her and the musicians, a staging choice Pitchfork says emphasized her lonely approach to pop-soul. She went on to win Best New Artist.
What's next: the VMAs' effect on the charts. Billboard says Yung Lean and Gener8ion's “Storm” jumped 443% to 350,000 U.S. streams the day after, Spiro's “Great Expectation” hit a single-day best of 919,000, and Madonna's “Danceteria” was up 377%. (The full result sheet is in our winners wrap.)
Sources
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
