Who is Going Home Empty-Handed?
The 2026 Video Music Awards taking place on Sunday are shaping up to be a very interesting night.
MTV has already announced that Madonna will be making her return to the VMAs stage, her first appearance in over two decades. She is also the most nominated artist this year, with 11 total nominations, the only artist with double digits.
Snoop Dogg will be hosting the event, with coverage between the six total performances. Lisa of BLACKPINK is a returning performer, alongside RAYE, Sienna Spiro, Shaboozey and Gunna. I believe Snoop is a very good choice of a host; he is very charismatic and entertaining on stage. I believe he will do well covering the event.
When discussing the possibility of an artist winning, it is important to consider that fan voting and participation are valued, but there is also industry input. There are fan-voted categories and professional categories, with fan input being 90% responsible for the outcome.
With that being established, I want to make some predictions of who I think will be taking these awards home. I will be selecting a few of the fan-voted categories to cover.
For the first award of my choice, we have Video of the Year. I am certain that Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande will be the winner here. Fanbase alone, Taylor Swift is an industry titan who will top the charts regardless of the art quality. However, the actual artistic quality of “hate that I made you love me, “ is the best, in my opinion.
Despite Swift also being nominated for Artist of the Year, I believe there is a chance that Morgan Wallen pulls ahead. Country artists have very large, dedicated fanbases, and Wallen has had a very successful chart run this decade. I truly think it’s an even toss-up. There are many other popular nominees such as Bruno Mars and Madonna, so it could go any way.
Song of the Year is always a highly competitive category, and despite BTS being nominated, I am unsure of their victory. The Korean boy band has established a cult-like following since their debut.
That being said, I believe “Golden” by HUNTRIX or “Choosin’ Texas” by Ella Langley will be the winner here. Langley broke an all-time chart record this week with a whopping 23 weeks at the number one spot. However, “Golden” is from a very successful Netflix film, “K-Pop Demon Hunters”, so I believe it also has a fair shot.
Best New Artist is often seen as the first accomplishment many artists will earn in their career, making it an extremely valuable category. Stella Lefty and Malcolm Todd have both had very successful songs this year, but I believe Cortis will be the group to take this award home. They debuted very recently and already have a large following behind them, so I believe they will be the chosen recipient.
The last category I want to discuss is Best K-Pop. There are some very popular groups nominated, including BTS, BLACKPINK, Cortis and KATSEYE. KATSEYE is not a K-Pop group and sings entirely in English, so I believe they are the least deserving here.
From a complete musical quality, “JUMP” by BLACKPINK takes the cake. The EDM track was released last summer and saw immense international success. “SWIM” by BTS has a very good chance of winning just due to their sheer fanbase size, but I’m unsure if I want them to win this category.
Overall, the night could go so many different ways. There are very often curveballs in voting; I feel good about most of my predictions. I am hopeful that some of them will turn out to be correct.
