Madonna returned to the MTV Video Music Awards stage for her first performance in 23 years last night (September 27), teaming up with Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX.
The singer opened the 2026 ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles with an elaborate performance drawing on the visual world of her latest album, ‘Confessions II’.
After an opening sequence featuring dancers performing scenes from the album’s accompanying short film, Madonna was revealed sitting on top of a piano as Carpenter played at the keys. The pair then launched into ‘Bring Your Love’, their collaboration from ‘Confessions II’.
Madonna later descended into the crowd, where dancers lifted her onto a table surrounded by a white-veiled choir, before the stage transformed into a recreation of the bathroom setting from her ‘Danceteria’ video.
Charli then emerged from one of the bathroom stalls to join her for ‘Danceteria Afterhours’, the pair’s new reworking of the ‘Confessions II’ track that was released last week.
The performance also featured a string of cameos, including Julia Garner, Debi Mazar, Sombr and Seth Rogen. Garner had previously been cast to play Madonna in the singer’s long-gestating biopic, before the project collapsed following a disagreement with Universal over its budget.
Watch the performance here:
Madonna opening the VMAs 2026 (featuring Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX) pic.twitter.com/yREADRC8G7
— Madonna Madgesty 🪩👑 (@MadonnaMadgesty) September 28, 2026
Madonna’s last musical performance at the VMAs came in 2003, when she famously appeared alongside Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera for a medley of ‘Like A Virgin’ and ‘Hollywood’, kissing both singers during the performance.
Her history with the ceremony stretches back to the inaugural VMAs in 1984, when she delivered her now-famous performance of ‘Like A Virgin’, while her 1990 rendition of ‘Vogue’ is also among the show’s best-known performances.
Congrats to @Madonna on an incredible night at the 2026 @MTV #VMAs — winning 7 awards, the most of any artist this year! ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/3wcFIoeitm
— Warner Records (@warnerrecords) September 28, 2026
The comeback capped a major night for Madonna, who finished the 2026 VMAs with seven awards. They included Artist Of The Year, Best Dance and Best Album for ‘Confessions II’, while she and Carpenter won Best Collaboration for ‘Bring Your Love’. Confessions II – The Film also took Best Long Form Video, Best Choreography and Best Cinematography.
‘Bring Your Love’ was first unveiled when Madonna made a surprise appearance during Carpenter’s Coachella headline set in April, before the pair released the studio version and an official video. ‘Danceteria Afterhours’, meanwhile, sees Madonna and Charli trade memories of the respective club scenes that shaped their early careers.
In NME’s four-star review of ‘Confessions II’, Nick Levine described the record as Madonna’s “most vital album in over two decades”, adding: “This grande dame still knows how to make us move.”
