The 2026 VMAs took place on Sunday, Sept. 27, and they started off strong. Madonna opened the show with her first performance at the award show in 23 years, and she did not come to play. The artist brought out both Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx to perform alongside her, and she had cameos from a ton of celebrities and artists on stage to boot. The cameos spurred a bunch of memes online, and some of them were honestly as good as the performance itself was.
To kick off the performance at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter performed “Bring Your Love,” a song they later won the 2026 Best Collaboration VMA for. (You might remember the hit from its iconic debut performance earlier this year at Coachella.) The VMA performance started out with Madonna sitting on top of the piano in a red bodysuit, knee high-boots, and a black trench coat as Carpenter sat at a piano in a white collared shirt with black glittery bottoms, suspenders, and a black beret.
After performing with Carpenter, Madonna then continued her opening performance by singing her collaborative track with Charli xcx titled “Danceteria Afterhours.” Besides Carpenter and xcx joining Madonna on stage, there were several other (random, IMHO!) cameos from celebrities and artists that had fans online losing it. From Sombr and Julia Garner to Seth Rogen and Debi Mazar, fans were gagged to say the least. Some of them were “blink and you’ll miss it” moments, so it wasn’t immediately clear how star-studded the stage was. With Madonna’s performance being the show’s opener, the performance definitely had viewers talking (in a good way)!
The cameos were scattered throughout the performance, with familiar faces emerging from stage right, stage left, and even bathroom stalls. And yes, Seth Rogen did light a blunt on stage. (Wouldn’t be the first time this happened at an MTV award show — I’m looking at you, Miley Cyrus!) Thankfully, X/Twitter caught them all, and you can rewatch the video of the performance as many times as you need to catch them all.
After her opening performance, Madonna continued to dominate the evening by winning the awards for Song of the Year for “Bring Your Love,” Artist of the Year, and Best Dance for the “Confessions II” film. So, the VMAs were really Madonna’s night. Some might’ve thought other aspects of the awards ceremony were lackluster, but Madonna and her opening performance brought the energy and excitement fans were looking for.