2026 VMA Best Collaboration - You Vote
Best Collaboration judges a decision rather than a record, so rank these six by how much comes off when a name comes off. Take one artist out of the credit and weigh what goes with them: the whole song, half the argument, a verse, a chart tier, very little. The more that collapses, the higher the record sits. That is the axis and nothing else moved the order; chart numbers show up below as evidence of what a name carries, never as a prize, and the size of anyone's year counts for nothing here. Two of these are reunions sixteen years in the making, which is its own kind of answer. One was commissioned by a football tournament and sung in five languages, and it gets the same test as everything else. The ballot prints four names on a credit that really holds three parties. Voting closes 25 September. The order is the argument, so vote it into shape.
- 1
Madonna & Sabrina Carpenter — Bring Your Love
Start with the frame. TORSO's clip is an extended cut of the song's sequence from Madonna's Confessions II film, so Carpenter is a guest inside somebody else's world before she sings a note. She is good company in it, light where Madonna is imperious. Lose her and the record shrinks; lose Madonna and there is nothing left to shrink. The carpet unrolling across the dance floor tells you whose party this is.
- 2
French Montana x Max B — Ever Since U Left Me
Max B came home on 9 November 2025, sixteen years inside, and walked out on French Montana's birthday. The tape got cut in roughly eight days with nothing pulled from the archive. Take either name off and there is no song at all, because the reunion is the record. Nothing else here scores that high. Kid Art puts the pair in the furs and pinky rings on Gansevoort Street, unhurried, as though no time had gone missing.
- 3
Clipse, Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T, Malice — Chains & Whips
Two removals to try here. Take Malice off and there is no Clipse at all, because the brothers are the pairing the ballot's four names are hiding. Take Lamar off and a record still stands: Gabriel Moses shoots the film without him and closes on the two women singing Grindin' on the porch. His verse cost the group its label, which is commitment rather than necessity, and that is the difference between second and first.
- 4
Teyana Taylor & Lucky Daye — Hard Part
A breakup duet only works if both people get to argue, and this one hands Lucky Daye half the conversation rather than a guest verse near the end. Take him off and half the song goes with him. He is on screen for most of it too, in a convertible crossing the desert. The stop at the gas station is where the song stops pretending.
- 5
PinkPantheress & Zara Larsson — Stateside
Proof of survival, already on the record: the song went UK No. 3 in April 2025, nine months before Larsson joined it. What comes off with her is a chart tier rather than a song, because the version carrying her verse is the one that hit Global 200 No. 1 and Hot 100 No. 6. Charlotte Rutherford splits the screen with the two neon signs, Fancy That and Midnight Sun, one album each.
- 6
Shakira & Burna Boy — Dai Dai
A tournament picked this pairing before the music did: the official 2026 World Cup song, six credited writers including Ed Sheeran and Jon Bellion, five languages. Take Burna Boy off and the brief still gets met, because covering that territory is what the commission was buying. He sings his part well and appears for it. Hannah Lux Davis opens on the Messi, Mbappé and Haaland walk-on.
