The only time anybody cares about the MTV VMAs is when something goes wrong – such as when Kanye West invaded the stage as Taylor Swift was receiving a gong in 2009, when Britney Spears wobbled uncertainly with a visibly unimpressed snake in 2001 or when Madonna locked lips with Spears and Christina Aguilera in an immediately controversial and rather desperate bid for relevance in 2003.

Madonna was back for the first time since snoggate at the 2026 Awards – and was once again tangling with two international pop stars. This time, though, she kept the tongue where it belongs and settled for duetting with Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX in a performance that doubled as a tribute to her early days in New York (and which was chiefly memorable for the bit where Charli launched herself out of a scuzzy bathroom).

Madge’s performance was perfectly competent and so, by VMA standards, completely unmemorable. Instead, the daunting task of reviving the broadcast’s history of disastrous missteps was handed off to the artist assembled for a series of tributes to iconic musicians. These turns were by far the most noteworthy part of the broadcast – hosted with a bit of a shrug by Snoop Dogg – and were a reminder of just how indebted music today is to the greats of yesteryear.They were also generally disastrous, with rock bottom achieved when mop-haired overnight star Sombr inflicted grievous bodily harm on George Michael’s memory in a honkingly horrible homage to the Wham! man ahead of the 10th anniversary of his death this Christmas. Sombr was dragooned into doing Father Figure – a song which requires wit, charisma and a lived-in ennui. These are all qualities Sombr, 21, lacks in abundance. There was almost as big a misfire when Raye was required to channel Aretha Franklin on I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me).Raye had already confirmed her star power by singing her own hits I Will Overcome and Where Is My Husband! but was all at sea impersonating Franklin, as was Teddy Swims, whose Careless Whisper got the “careless” part down pat but didn’t have much of a grasp on the tune’s roiling melancholy. The only one who seemed to understand Michael at any level was Adam Lambert, who popped along last to zip through Freedom! ’90.

What George Michael did to deserve any of this is hard to say. Fans of Nirvana will have been relieved that Kurt Cobain was spared the equivalent reputational bashing when the VMA honoured his memory. Rather than wheeling out, say, Fred Again and a random member of BTS to perform Scentless Apprentice, the organisers arranged for the surviving members of the band, led by Dave Grohl, to come out and make a speech.

The only tribute that worked was Kacey Musgraves’ bittersweet love letter to Dolly Parton. With the sting of Parton’s death still fresh in her memory, Musgraves honoured the song’s power and majesty while not making it all about her – a lesson Sombr and others would do well to take note of.

Modern music is in thrall to the past to an almost pathetic degree – as the ongoing hysteria over another cash-hoovering Oasis comeback confirms. At the VMA, the extent to which MTV was coasting on the glories of the music’s greats was confirmed by the underwhelming performances by contemporary artists.

The most rock ’n’ roll thing about Yung Lean’s admittedly stunningly choreographed recreation of the video for his GENER8ION collaboration, Storm II, was, for instance, when he spat ice cream in the video at the end. Meanwhile, the still ubiquitous Taylor Swift was on hand to accept an entirely made-up trophy for pop stars who direct their own videos (expect her to be back next year for the award for best singer married to an American footballer).

In pop music you can get away with anything so long as you aren’t boring, but the VMAs seem to have forgotten that rule. The 2026 awards were a snooze where the only thing that anyone is going to remember is a half-cocked George Michael tribute that seemed blissfully unaware of what made him such a special pop star in the first place. When the VMAs don’t even have it in them to be controversial, you know it’s time to go home.