Nirvana will be given the Video Vanguard Award at this month’s “MTV Video Music Awards“, the first band to take the ceremony’s career honour in 23 years.
MTV made the announcement on Wednesday, choosing the date deliberately. “This day in 1992, Nirvana took to the VMAs stage for the first time – shaping music, culture, and MTV forever. Nirvana is our 2026 #VMAs Video Vanguard recipient!!!” the network wrote. “Join us as we celebrate Nirvana‘s incredible legacy on Sunday, September 27 on @CBStv, @MTV, and streaming on @ParamountPlus.”
That first VMA appearance, on September 9, 1992 at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, remains one of the more chaotic sets in the show’s history. The band opened with the first lines of “R**e Me” after the network had told them not to play it, before switching to “Lithium“. It ended with Krist Novoselic throwing his bass into the air and being struck on the head as it came down. Nirvana took two awards that night, for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Video.
Nirvana are the ninth band to receive the Video Vanguard, after The Beatles, Bon Jovi, Guns N’ Roses, The Rolling Stones, R.E.M., Beastie Boys, U2 and Duran Duran, who took it in 2003. They are also the first band no longer active to be given it since The Beatles in 1984.
Every recipient in between has been a solo artist. Mariah Carey received it last year, Katy Perry in 2024, Shakira in 2023 and Nicki Minaj in 2022.
MTV‘s announcement referred to it only as the Video Vanguard Award, without the Michael Jackson prefix the network has attached to it in some years.
The honour lands in the same season MTV dropped Best Rock from the VMAs, a change confirmed in August when this year’s nominations were published. The category had been part of the show since the 1980s.
The 2026 VMAs take place on Sunday, September 27 at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, airing on CBS from 7:30 p.m. ET with a simulcast on MTV and streaming on Paramount+ Premium in the US. The show goes out globally the following day on Paramount+ and MTV.
Madonna leads the nominations with 11, followed by Taylor Swift with nine, and Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter with seven apiece.
Nirvana was formed by Kurt Cobain and Novoselic, with Dave Grohl joining on drums in 1990 after a run of earlier drummers including Chad Channing. They released three studio albums, Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero, before ending with Cobain‘s death in April 1994.
Grohl, Novoselic and Pat Smear have reconvened occasionally since, playing with a rotating cast of guest singers. MTV has not said who will accept the award.
