Madonna and Taylor Swift, queens of an MTV VMA ceremony steeped in nostalgia for Dolly Parton, Nirvana and George Michael

It has been 42 years since MTV began honoring what it knows best and what, at the time, few people valued: music videos. Four decades have passed and much has changed in the industry. There is no self-respecting artist today who does not present their projects visually, especially in this internet era. A lot has changed since 1984, but only to grow bigger. On Sunday night, artists once again proved it.

There were two queens of the night: Madonna and Taylor Swift, for their highly anticipated returns. And both left wearing crowns. The first, who has released an album for the first time in seven years, opened the gala at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles with her first performance at the awards in 23 years, recreating the now-iconic image of the pop queen kissing her then-princesses: Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Swift also returned with force to debut her new music video, for the song Patient Zero, released this past Friday.

Madonna also shone as the most nominated artist of the edition, with 11 nominations; Swift had nine. Not all awards were presented during the gala—only about half a dozen (17 others were left out of the broadcast)—but you could say they ended up level. Madonna took three (collaboration, dance, artist of the year) while Swift won the new Artist Director Honors award, created this year and after which she premiered the Patient Zero video worldwide, which she directed and stars in (alongside Dakota Johnson), and above all the most important prize: Video of the year, for The Fate of Ophelia, the lead single from her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl. The Pennsylvania native dedicated it to her Mexican director of photography, Rodrigo Prieto.

As a final touch, she thanked and dedicated the award “to one person without whom this wouldn’t be happening, and that person is the ultimate showgirl, Dolly Parton [...] “Every single song that she wrote, her storytelling was so vivid and so rich.”

The evening was opened by the godmother of pop, now 68, seated on a piano played by Sabrina Carpenter, who was also one of the night’s main stars with seven nominations. Together they sang the song they released this summer, Bring Your Love; later they would both win for best collaboration. As is required at these awards and in any Madonna performance, she brought a dozen dancers onstage to help with a costume change, removing a trench coat to reveal a bodysuit.

But the show did not stop there. Perched on a platform, Madonna spun around a veiled choir, then continued the performance in a row of toilets, from which the class rebel emerged: Charli XCX. They released Danceteria Afterhours together on Thursday, and two actresses joined them onstage: Debi Mazar (a friend of Madonna since the eighties) and Julia Garner (who is set to portray Madonna in her biopic). With a 1990s aesthetic similar to her older videos and recalling George Michael’s Outside, they managed to kick off the night with energy.

Then the trophies began to rain down for Madonna. She took home the award for best collaboration, unsurprisingly, for singing Bring Your Love with Sabrina Carpenter. Dressed in a black corset while Carpenter wore an outfit reminiscent of Rose from Titanic, they embraced across the stage. “I haven’t held one of these in 10 years; I didn’t prepare anything,” Madonna said, joking about Carpenter taking five days to reply to the Instagram message in which she proposed they sing together; the younger artist explained that she wasn’t the one managing her replies, her team was. “If you think it’s a love song, you are mistaken,” Madonna revealed. “It’s a song about people who think they know you better than you know yourself.”

She also collected the artist of the year award. “Some of you were probably not born, I think most of you were probably not born, but I performed at the first MTV Awards 43 years ago,” she recalled. “I had a problem with my shoes, I lost a heel [...] My dress went up, and my butt cheek was hanging out. And in those days, butt cheeks were not hanging out, I just want to remind you. I went backstage felling really proud of myself, and my manager told me that my career was over,” she laughed. She said she has spent the last year and a half finding and believing in herself to release her new album, Confessions II: “Making the music I wanted, and that is the definition of being an artist. My hope is that you spend next year or the next 10 years finding yourselves.”

The award for best dance video also went to Madonna, though she seemed unsure why she was receiving it (precisely for Confessions on a Dance Floor: Part II, as Charli XCX reminded when presenting it to her).

Beyond Madonna and Swift, there was little variety. Sienna Spiro won best new artist in an award presented by last year’s winner, Alex Warren. The surprise wasn’t that big: of the seven nominees (Spiro herself, Bella Kay, Malcom Todd, Stella Lefty, Magnus Ferrell and Myles Smith), she had been the only one to perform at the Peacock Theater, wearing a retrofuturistic metal minidress in the style of Barbarella.

Teyana Taylor presented the award for best pop video, which went to Thai artist Lisa for Dream, alongside Kentaro Sakaguchi. Both presenter and winner were visibly emotional. If being part of the band Blackpink helped launch her career, this solo phase is proving highly successful. In fact, she performed shortly after onstage with nods to Thailand, in front of signs with Thai letters and atop a red tuktuk.

The awards were interspersed with performances. British artist Raye took the stage with half a dozen violinists, barefoot and wearing a large fur coat that later gave way to a red lace dress. She showed her vocal power with the hit that has become Where Is My Husband? After her came another ballad sung by Bruno Mars, dressed in white with a hat and guitar. The only difference was that he wasn’t there: it was a pre-recorded segment. Live, however, was the intense performance by Swedish rapper Yung Lean with a huge choir, GENER8ION, who filled the stage in school uniforms.

The awards paid tribute to George Michael with a mix of his songs performed by artists such as Sombr, Raye, Adam Lambert and Teddy Swims. But the most tender tribute of the night and one of its great moments was for the recently deceased Dolly Parton. The audience rose as country singer Kacey Musgraves sang her hit I Will Always Love You, written by Parton in 1973 and popularized by Whitney Houston as part of The Bodyguard soundtrack. After that, the country segment continued with Shaboozey, who staged an entire western saloon with wooden doors, pianos, banjos and card games, which ended up in flames.

The night’s biggest honorees were Nirvana, who received the lifetime achievement award. Their videos “defined an era,” the music channel said. “Today we celebrate them with the most beloved MTV VMA, the Video Vanguard,” meaning the annual tribute that has previously gone to the Beatles—the first recipients—Madonna, David Bowie, Beyoncé, Shakira, Katy Perry or, last year, Mariah Carey.

“This award brings back memories of making those videos,” Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear said onstage, remembering their colleague Kurt Cobain, who died in 1994. “He was one of a kind,” Novoselic said, while Smear smoked onstage. “Nirvana still has so much power because people look for authenticity, something real, something that tells you: it’s okay to be who you are. Kurt would have loved that to be his legacy.”

The ceremony was hosted by rapper Snoop Dogg, who broadcast it live on CBS; that said, it aired with about a 20-minute delay because it was Sunday night and football rules that timeslot.

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