The 2026 MTV VMA nominations have been released, and we’re crowding the halls like high school drama kids trying to see who scored the lead in the musical. Madonna tops the list with 11 nominations this year, beating her own previous record of nine. Taylor Swift has the second most nominations with nine of her own, then Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter each with seven, then Bruno Mars, PinkPantheress, and Zara Larsson have five each.
Notably, past Video of the Year winners Grande, Madonna, and Swift are nominated for the big winner category once again. There are of course first-time nominees, some promising Best New Artist nominations, and the return of the Best Dance category after seven years.
But with all the announcements from the MTV VMAs, some categories are worryingly absent. Two big genre categories, to be exact. Best Rock and Best Afrobeats were not included among the nominees. They were included in last years awards, but not heavily featured during the broadcast.
It’s possible that these categories just haven’t been announced yet, and the nominations are on the way. However, a Billboard report claiming to be the full list is missing these two genres. Several other crucial categories are also missing. These include Best Pop Artist, Push Performance of the Year, Best Album, Video for Good, Best Long-Form Video, Best Group, and Song of Summer.
The MTV VMAs Caters to Mainstream Music, Which Means Fewer Subgenre Categories
Speculating on whether or not these categories have been axed won’t reveal any new information. Truly, we won’t know until we know. Still, it’s interesting to consider why the MTV VMAs would get rid of several categories that seem like they’d be pretty important for a music award show.
Generally, the award show format is a popularity contest for mainstream entertainment, and it’s always been that way. Plus, there’s absolutely no way for a single award show to represent every aspect of music and nominate without bias and satisfy everyone who has a stake in it. By design, popularity contests leave a lot of room for disappointment.
At the heart of it, the VMAs are awards for music videos. The best albums, artists, and performances are better represented by the Grammy Awards. Although the Recording Academy has its own problems. But for a music video award show to leave out nominations for two video-based categories like Video for Good and Best Long-Form Video is strange. All that, and we’re missing Song of the Summer? Perhaps the VMAs need to get their priorities straightened out.
I Want My MTV (To Reevaluate What They Think ‘Alternative’ Means)
However, there’s some good news. Looking at the full list of genre specific categories, the representation is pretty decent. Pop, Hip-Hop, Alternative, R&B, K-Pop, Dance, Latin, and Country is not a bad mix, all things considered. However, that also means we get Noah Kahan, Olivia Rodrigo, mgk, and Tame Impala next to Geese and Twenty One Pilots in the Alternative category.
As mentioned above, there’s going to be some disappointment when you’re dealing with a general music award show like the MTV VMAs. They cater to the mainstream, which means a lot of pop music and fewer, if any, subgenre categories. All told, this isn’t a bad spread. Just don’t expect to see Best Haunted Carnival Metal on the nomination list any time soon.
Photo by Joseph Okpako/WireImage
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