Madonna leads the pack at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards with 11 nominations — more than any other artist, including Taylor Swift's nine and Ariana Grande's and Sabrina Carpenter's seven apiece — marking a commercial and critical comeback for the pop icon as she approaches 70.

The nominations, announced Tuesday, recognize material from Madonna's first album since 2019's "Madame X." Billed as a sequel to her 2005 hit "Confessions on a Dance Floor," the project has generated buzz for both its sound and its rollout. The VMAs air live Sunday, September 27, from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, simulcast on CBS and Paramount+.

An Elaborate, Physical Comeback

Behind the scenes, insiders describe an unusually ambitious production for Madonna's next music video: a roughly 200-person crew, Cirque du Soleil aerialists, and choreography from Damien Jalet, working under a director known for Charli XCX's "Von Dutch" video. Sources say Madonna is performing many of her own stunts despite having a body double on set — a detail reported by AOL citing unnamed insiders, and worth treating as reported detail rather than confirmed fact until Madonna's camp comments directly.

CRITICS HAVE REPORTEDLY URGED HER TO "ACT HER AGE." SHE'S DOING THE OPPOSITE.

According to that same reporting, some collaborators have privately suggested Madonna "act her age" as she nears 70 — pushback a source says "only energizes her creative vision." The album's themes are said to draw on two hard chapters in her recent life: a 2023 hospitalization in intensive care for a bacterial infection, and the 2024 death of her brother Christopher Ciccone.

Billboard's full nominations list shows Madonna competing across multiple categories this year, while Deadline notes the show's Best Dance category returns for the first time since 2019 — a category tailor-made for an artist whose career has been built as much on choreography and spectacle as on chart hits.

Madonna's late-career resurgence follows a rocky stretch that included health scares and a scaled-back Celebration Tour after her 2023 ICU stay. A chart-topping, awards-dominating comeback at nearly 70 would be a notable turn for an artist who has spent four decades reinventing herself every few years, from "Like a Virgin" to "Ray of Light" to "Confessions on a Dance Floor" and now, potentially, its sequel.

MTV has not released a full performer lineup for the September 27 telecast. With 11 nominations on the board, Madonna will enter the night as the artist to beat — a position she hasn't occupied at the VMAs in years.