The VMAs have gone down in history as one of the most popular award shows back in the early 2000s. Now, with the ongoing nostalgia and Y2K trends, TikTok and other social media platforms have began to bring back and shape the award show with a more modern twist.
Over the years, the VMAs have seen a decline in public interest and was not the talk that it used to be. The show became notorious for its infamous clips of Kanye West dissing Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj calling out Miley Cyrus saying, “Miley, what’s good?”
As years have gone by, there have been fewer and fewer clips going viral from the show making their downfall quite evident to the public eye.
What has changed? You might ask. The reemergence of pop music featuring explosive artists and collaborations such as PinkPantheress, Sienna Spiro, Olivia Dean, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX and Madonna. All artists who have gone viral thanks to the social media platform, TikTok.
TikTok served as a main form of promoting the event and a fan voting mechanism. Through social media, smaller artists were able outshine some of the bigger names and gain major algorithmic traction that boosted popularity for the show.
Fan edits on the app quickly became campaigning tactics for artists such as Lisa who performed her single “SaWaDiKa“ that blew up across platforms.
Back on the rise with a total of 13 nominations, Madonna took over the VMAs as a wide variety of her legendary music has made its mark as TikTok audios. Fans took to socials to advocate for her nominations with the #madonna tag at the end of each post that featured her.
Artists including Ariana Grande and Carpenter have managed to maintain their presence by bringing back high production music videos and heavily trending sound bites through TikTok templates.
Kacey Musgraves is receiving endless praise for her heartfelt dedication to the late country icon, Dolly Parton. Musgraves sang the iconic song “I Will Always Love You” that was written by Parton in 1973. The TikTok community is thanking the country artist for keeping the same country twang Parton once sang with.
Users are also commenting that “they could not have picked anyone better for this.” VMA viewers have expressed their deep emotions and reactions tagging #iwillalwaysloveyou.
Artists Teddy Swims, RAYE and Sombr have been going up on the trend for their tribute to George Michael. Their performance showcased everyone’s vocal capabilities, however, it received a lot of mixed reviews on TikTok.
Viewers highlighted their performance saying it was warm and soulful. Others had an opposing opinion saying that it lacked in some places but made up in others.
TikTok’s overall opinion of the VMAs may shape what we see for next years show. The outcome was leaning towards viral memes, headlines and chaos that made headlines.
Social media platform seems to be filled with Madonnas antics stemming from a wide variety of jokes, stage struggles and questionable acceptance speeches. Some users even discussed Taylor Swift making history for most VMAs and premiering her “Patient Zero” music video.
Many are conflicted and criticizing the awards while others seem to be praising the production. This leaves us with the ongoing question of, “what will TikTok have in store for us next year?”
The post How TikTok Fueled the 2026 VMAs appeared first on LAmag.
