Madonna opened the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night with a medley built around two of the most visible women in pop right now, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx . After a broadcast delay caused by the Ravens-Cowboys game, she took the stage for her first VMA performance in 23 years. She started with “Bring Your Love,” her house-pop duet with Carpenter from her 2026 album Confessions II , then moved into “Danceteria Afterhours,” a new version of the album track “Danceteria” recorded with Charli xcx. Other familiar faces from the Confessions II long-form film also joined her on stage.

The choice of collaborators is worth examining. Carpenter and Charli xcx represent two very different lanes of contemporary pop. Carpenter works in polished, theatrical, radio-ready pop, with a persona built on wit, costuming and playful provocation. Charli xcx came up through club culture and the experimental edges of the genre, and her Brat era turned an underground dance sensibility into a mainstream cultural moment.

Both lanes can be traced back to Madonna. She established the model of the pop star as a visual, provocative, character-driven performer who treats every appearance as a statement. She also built her career on the dance floor, starting in New York’s downtown club scene, and the title “Danceteria” nods to the Manhattan nightclub tied to her earliest days.

Whether or not today’s artists sound like Madonna, the template she created for women in pop is embedded in how they build their careers.

A Legacy Framed In Numbers

The night carried historical weight before a single award was handed out. Madonna entered the show with 13 nominations, matching a single-year total previously reached only by Lady Gaga in 2010. It had been 27 years since she last won a VMA.

Some argue that “all the biggest pop superstars were men” until Madonna hit the scene, and since them, most of the biggest stars have been women. A bold claim, but not an unsubstantiated one.

Tonight’s performance also set a new VMA record. According to Billboard , it marked Madonna’s fifth time opening the show, breaking the tie she held with Rihanna at four.

Looking Back On Four Decades Of VMA History

Madonna’s relationship with the VMAs goes back to the very first ceremony in 1984, when she performed “Like a Virgin” in a wedding dress, writhing across the stage in a performance that became one of the defining images of early MTV. She later recalled that her manager told her afterward that her career was over.

Two years later, in 1986, she became the first woman to receive the Video Vanguard Award, recognizing her impact on music video as an art form. She opened the show in 1989 with “Express Yourself,” performing in menswear-inspired tailoring and a monocle, and that year “Express Yourself” and “Like a Prayer” collected four awards between them.

In 1990, she delivered one of the most referenced performances in the show’s history with “Vogue,” staged as an 18th-century court scene complete with a massive skirt, powdered wig and fan. She was the leading nominee that year with nine nods. She opened again in 1993 with “Bye Bye Baby.”

The Ray of Light era brought her biggest night. In 1998, she again led the field with nine nominations and won six categories, including her first Video of the Year for “Ray of Light.” The following year, “Beautiful Stranger” gave her a 20th VMA, more than any other artist until Beyoncé passed her in 2016.

Her last performance before this year came in 2003, when she opened the show alongside Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliott, and her onstage kisses with Spears and Aguilera became one of the most replayed moments in awards show history.

Breaking Records Beyond The VMAs

Madonna’s influence on the VMAs mirrors her impact on pop music more broadly. Guinness World Records recognizes her as the top-selling female recording artist of all time, with more than 300 million records sold worldwide. In 2008, Billboard ranked her second on its all-time Hot 100 artists list, behind only the Beatles, making her the most successful solo artist in the chart’s history. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that same year.

Madonna has also reshaped the business side of the industry. In 2007, she signed a $120 million deal with Live Nation, an arrangement that signaled how artist revenue would increasingly come from touring and brand-building rather than recorded music alone. In 2019, “Vogue” made her the first female artist to have music videos surpass 100 million YouTube views across four different decades.

Her live footprint remains unmatched. In May 2024, Madonna drew 1.6 million people to a free concert on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, setting the record for the most attended stand-alone concert by any artist and the highest attended concert by a woman.

Excitement Builds During The Rollout Strategy Behind the Return

The Confessions II campaign shows Madonna continuing to adapt to how audiences discover music. The album is her first studio release in more than seven years, the longest gap of her career, and on release day, two versions of it claimed the top two spots on the U.S. iTunes Top Albums chart, as Forbes contributor Hugh McIntyre reported . It went on to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, giving her a tenth chart-topper and a 24th top 10 on the tally, which moved her past Bob Dylan’s career total . A live video event for the project also set a TikTok record with 2.1 million global viewers, and the accompanying film drove eight of her VMA nominations on its own.

Pairing with Carpenter and Charli xcx follows a pattern Madonna has used before. In 2003, sharing the stage with Spears and Aguilera positioned her as the figure the next generation of pop stars looked to.

In 2026, the approach is similar, but the message is different. Rather than handing influence to younger artists, the performance demonstrated that the line connecting her work to theirs is still active and that she remains a participant in the current moment rather than a reference point for it.

For an artist whose VMA history spans more than four decades, Madonna’s opener functioned as both a celebration and a reminder. The pop landscape Carpenter and Charli xcx operate in today, one led largely by women with full creative control over their image, is the one Madonna spent her career building.