Madonna dominated Sunday night’s (Sept. 27) 2026 MTV VMAs with a lavish, star-studded opening performance and a career-best seven awards. But the 68-year-old pop legend proved she was just getting started in a post-show TikTok in which she raged in a hotel room with pals Charli xcx and actress Julia Garner.
In the high-energy 21-second clip, the three women pose, kick and hair-flip with abandon to a remix of a song from the Queen of Pop’s Confessions II LP, “Danceteria Afterhours.” As a crew of friends sit on the floor and watch, Madonna, on all fours, flings her hair and rolls around on the bed as Charli — dressed in jeans and a black bra — flips the double bird to the camera, high kicks and follows Madonna’s lead in dancing like everyone is looking. Garner, wearing a white slip, poses and raises her arms in the air in triumph as she strikes some appropriately seductive, Madonna-esque poses just before Madonna crawls up to the camera and lets out a roar.
The big night started hours earlier with Madonna taking the stage for her first VMA performance in 23 years — and fifth time opening the show — following up her iconic 2003 double kiss with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera with an all-star set featuring her new-school collaborators Sabrina Carpenter and Charli.
Perched on top of a piano played by Carpenter, the pair sang their Confessions II hit “Bring You Love,” after which Madonna danced across the stage and was lifted onto a moving platform as a gospel choir sang before moving into “Danceteria.” At that point, Charli popped out and they collaborated on the “Danceteria Afterhours” remix, which transitioned into the bathroom dance party from the Confessions II short film, featuring cameos from sombr, Garner, Seth Rogen and hip-hop legend Fab 5 Freddy.
Garner was slated to play Madonna in a biopic that appears to be on permanent pause, a situation that she reportedly revisits on upcoming season of Rogen’s Emmy-winning Apple+ series The Studio. According to a Variety report, Madonna will appear in two episodes of the upcoming second season of the Hollywood-skewering show in a storyline that makes reference to the star-crossed attempts to bring her life story to the big screen. The singer was photographed in Venice earlier this year along with Garner recreating the music video for the pop star’s 1984 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Like a Virgin.”
By the end of the night, Madonna scooped up seven awards, the most of any artist on Sunday, bringing her career total to 26 VMAs in competition, which puts her just behind Taylor Swift (32) and Beyoncé (29) on the all-time leaderboard. Three of the seven were scooped up during the broadcast, including artist of the year, best dance (for her Confessions II short film) and best collaboration (with Carpenter on “Bring Your Love”).
