An aging and seemingly intoxicated Madonna made a fool of herself repeatedly during Sunday night's MTV Video Music Awards on CBS. It was surprisingly non-political. Not a single political speech.
Madonna released her new album, Confessions II, this year and took home seven VMA awards for her work. Dressed like a twenty-something stripper, she needed help up to the stage when receiving awards and slurred her words during speeches.
Madonna's comeback VMA opening performance was hyped by CBS in the weeks leading up to it. The last time Madonna had performed on stage at the VMAs was in 2003 when she notoriously kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera seductively. Back then, the VMA Awards were a big deal to both kids and teenagers.
Twenty-three years later, all healthy sexual boundaries have been long broken on television, due in no small part to people like Madonna. Ironically, teenagers nowadays barely even know the VMAs still exist. Putting them on CBS instead of MTV doesn't matter at all to them.
Like a pop star version of Norma Desmond, Madonna tiredly strutted about the stage as though she were still a young ingenue. She sang "Bring Your Love" with Sabrina Carpenter and "Danceteria" with Charli XCX as lasers and younger performers compensated for her declining dance abilities.
Madonna gets carried across the stage and thrown onto a table by her dancers as she continues to perform despite being 68. pic.twitter.com/LTHPbgwANa
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) September 28, 2026
The "Danceteria" sequence took place on a public bathroom-style set. Dancers writhed on top of toilets and swayed at urinals. It ended with a large screen image of two men kissing. The only point of the number seemed to be to remind the audience that homosexual men are known for anonymous sex in bathrooms.
Upon winning the award for Best Dance, Madonna announced to the audience that she needed to pull something out of her anus. "First of all, I just want to get this -- thing out of my [bleep]. It's been in there all night," she said.
Vulgar Madonna moment at VMAs pic.twitter.com/0GpAhUBozH
— HollywoodClips (@awardshowclips) September 28, 2026
Madonna is almost 70 years old, yet immaturely making jokes that would make even a teenager cringe.
Longtime Madonna fans will likely pretend her return last night to the VMAs was "iconic." Honest viewers will see a tragicomic coda to the life of a woman still desperately seeking sexual attention in 2026.
