Madonna will perform at the MTV Video Music Awards for the first time in 23 years.
MTV confirmed the booking this week, putting the 66-year-old pop icon back on the same stage where she delivered one of the most dissected performances in awards-show history. The announcement arrives as the network prepares its flagship broadcast, with executives declining to reveal setlist or staging details beyond promising a live musical number.
The last time Madonna performed at the VMAs, she opened the 2003 ceremony at Radio City Music Hall by emerging from a giant wedding cake dressed as a groom. She launched into “Hollywood” flanked by Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, both wearing replica versions of the bridal gown Madonna made infamous at the inaugural VMAs in 1984. Midway through, Madonna kissed Spears, then turned and kissed Aguilera, while MTV cameras cut to a stunned Justin Timberlake in the audience.
The 2003 routine very nearly included a different pop star entirely. Jennifer Lopez, 55, revealed on Watch What Happens Live earlier this year that she had been originally approached for the performance and had even rehearsed her part before filming commitments on the movie Shall We Dance forced her to withdraw.
“[Madonna] said that that’s what she wanted to do. It was a thing, like, ‘We’re going to get married, I’m going to be the groom, you guys are going to sing,'” Lopez told host Andy Cohen.
She continued: “I was the one who was going to come out first and sing ‘Like a Virgin.’ I can’t even really remember what it was, but it was something like that.”
Lopez added that the kiss was “one surprise she didn’t have to practice.”
Madonna’s VMA history runs deep. At the first ceremony in 1984, she established the template for pop provocation by writhing across the stage in a wedding dress while singing “Like a Virgin.” She returned in 1990 with an 18th-century Marie Antoinette-inspired performance of “Vogue,” complete with elaborate fan choreography. She has collected 20 MTV Video Music Awards from 69 nominations, making her the most-awarded female artist in the ceremony’s history until Beyoncé surpassed that record in 2016.
While Madonna has made surprise appearances at subsequent VMAs broadcasts—including opening the 2021 show in a black leather dominatrix ensemble for MTV’s 40th anniversary—she has not delivered a full musical performance at the event since the 2003 spectacle with Spears, Aguilera, and a guest verse from Missy Elliott.
Insiders anticipate that Madonna’s upcoming set will feature a high-energy medley spanning her multi-decade catalog alongside material from her recent projects, following the conclusion of her record-breaking Celebration Tour.