VMAs most outrageous moments of all time - USA Today

The MTV Video Music Awards are Sunday night!

Snoop Dogg is set to host the ceremony at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles Sept. 27 in Los Angeles on CBS.

Pop icon Madonna, who performed at the first VMAs more than 40 years ago, leads the 2026 nominees with 11 nods thanks to her "Confessions II" album. Taylor Swift follows with nine while Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter earned seven nominations each.

In celebration of the cable channel that has given us music videos, spring break envy and numerous reality stars' careers, we've assembled 10 of the most OMG moments from the awards ceremony throughout the years.

"And, yes, as you probably could have guessed by this moment, I have decided in 2020 to run for president," he said.

At the end of an energetic performance of "Love On Top," the Queen B dropped the mic (literally) and revealed her bump (she was pregnant with Blue Ivy at the time) as the crowd went bananas and doting dad-to-be Jay-Z beamed.

It's a moment that still makes us shudder. When the award for best female video went to Taylor Swift over Beyoncé, her acceptance speech was hijacked by a disgruntled Kanye West. 

Sometimes it just has to be made clear that "Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time."  

The next year, Swift performed "Innocent." In an interview with New York Magazine, Swift led readers to believe she might be able to get past the incident: "It doesn’t really add anything good if I start victimizing myself and complaining about things." Of course that was before the "Famous" feud.

During a performance with pop stars Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, Madonna planted kisses on her cohorts. As cameras quickly cut away to a reaction shot from Spears' ex Justin Timberlake, Madge's smooch with Aguilera was largely overlooked.

Spears surprised the audience when she performed with a serpent while singing her sultry "I'm a Slave 4 U." In 2016, MTV tracked down the Burmese python and the snake's trainer, Mike Hano, who shared his memory of working with the ab-tastic singer. 

"She was afraid of the snake, but she forced herself to handle it, and she did a really great job," Hano said.

It has been a long road for Miley Cyrus to get to get her flowers. About a decade ago she was grinding on Robin Thicke in a peach bra top and matching short shorts while they belted out "Blurred Lines."

Cyrus reflected on the criticism she received after the performance on an episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in 2013.

"No one cares about the man behind the booty," Cyrus said. "You only care about the one that's shaking it. Double standard."

The singer turned heads on the red carpet in her meat dress – and spurred questions and backlash from animal rights activists. Gaga explained her style choice as meaning to protest the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gay soldiers.

“What I was really trying to say was ‘Dead meat is dead meat,’ and anyone that’s willing to take their life and die for their country is the same,” she told CNN's Anderson Cooper. “You’re not gay and dead, straight and dead, you are dead.”

Things heated up between Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj in a call out that left us speechless. The rapper made her iconic comment while accepting the award for best hip hop music video.

"And now ... back to this (expletive) that had a lot to say about me in the press,” Minaj said onstage. “Miley, what’s good?"

Minaj was referring to critical comments Cyrus had made in a cover story for The New York Times about Minaj’s frustration over the lack of diversity in nominations for music video of the year award for that year.

Another memorable moment was the kiss between Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley. The King of Pop kissed his then-wife onstage to a roar of cheers. 

"Just think, nobody thought this would last," Jackson said at the time, but it didn’t. The couple split just a few years later, in 1996.

Last, but certainly not least, is Lil’ Kim’s out-there outfit. The rapper donned a purple, one-shoulder body suit that exposed her breast, which she covered up with a matching pasty.

The look went down in history as one of the most memorable getups from the award show, even inspiring others to copy her look: Miley Cyrus re-created the look for Halloween in 2013.