Madonna’s Star-Studded VMA Return Shows Why She Still Rules the MTV Stage
Madonna had been away from the MTV Video Music Awards stage for 23 years. When she finally returned on September 27, she made sure the comeback felt unmistakably like Madonna.
Opening the 43rd annual VMAs, the 68-year-old pop icon delivered a theatrical medley from her latest album, Confessions II, surrounded by an unusually starry lineup of guests. Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Julia Garner, Sombr, Fab 5 Freddy, Seth Rogen, and others appeared throughout the elaborate performance.
Madonna entered the night with 13 VMA nominations, making her the most-nominated artist at this year’s ceremony. MTV’s official nominations initially listed 11 categories before two additional social categories brought her total to 13.
The performance itself was divided into two distinct sections, beginning with “Bring Your Love,” her collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter.
Sabrina Carpenter Joins Madonna for “Bring Your Love”
The opening number, “Bring Your Love,” paired Madonna with Carpenter for a performance that occasionally felt more restrained than what would follow. The song was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Collaboration, while Confessions II – The Film was competing across multiple categories, including Video of the Year.
The visual presentation drew heavily from the world of Confessions II. Camera-wielding sirens from the short film appeared suspended above the stage, creating a connection between the live performance and the film that had earned Madonna numerous VMA nominations.
Madonna and Carpenter largely stayed in sync as the production built toward its much more theatrical second half.
That was where the performance truly shifted gears.
Charli XCX Brings “Danceteria” to the Stage
Madonna then moved into “Danceteria Afterhours,” the Charli XCX collaboration built around Madonna’s “Danceteria.” Charli seamlessly stepped into the performance, bringing her own pop sensibility to a song rooted in Madonna’s early New York history. Contemporary coverage confirms the two performed the track together during the VMA opener.
The stage transformed into the dance-club bathroom seen in Confessions II – The Film. One by one, the stalls and urinals became portals for surprise appearances, turning the performance into something closer to a live extension of Madonna’s visual universe.
Among the familiar faces was Debi Mazar, Madonna’s longtime friend. Model Tony Ward also appeared. Ward previously starred alongside Madonna in the singer’s provocative 1990 “Justify My Love” video.
That reference carried its own piece of MTV history. “Justify My Love” was famously banned by MTV in 1990 because of its sexual content, making Ward’s appearance decades later an especially fitting callback to one of Madonna’s most controversial moments with the network.
A VMA Return Packed With Familiar Faces
The cameos continued throughout the production. Julia Garner, Sombr and Seth Rogen were among the other recognizable faces incorporated into the opening sequence, adding to the sense that Madonna had turned the entire performance into a reunion of collaborators, friends and artists connected to her current era.
For Madonna, the appearance marked her first live performance at the VMAs since 2003, when she opened the ceremony alongside Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. MTV had announced her return as the opening act earlier in September, describing it as her first performance at the awards show in 23 years.
More than two decades after her last VMA performance, Madonna once again used the ceremony on her own terms: part concert, part music video and part pop-culture spectacle.
The opening began with Sabrina Carpenter and “Bring Your Love,” but it was the increasingly elaborate “Danceteria Afterhours” sequence, packed with celebrity cameos and callbacks to Madonna’s history, that gave the performance its biggest sense of occasion.
And that may have been the most fitting way for Madonna to return to the MTV stage: by turning a few minutes of television into an entire piece of her own visual history.
Watch the performance below:
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