After three years, MTV has completely removed the 'Best Afrobeats' category from the list of nominations for the Video Music Awards (VMA). This decision followed the historic wins of South African star Tayl.
Tayl won the MTV VMA award in the 'Best Afrobeats' category in both 2024 and 2025, becoming the first artist to win this award twice before the category was officially abolished by MTV.
Previously, the award in this category went to Nigerian artist Remi for his remix of the song 'Calm Down' featuring Selena Gomez. Although the official reason for the category's removal was not stated, this is not the only instance: nine other categories were completely canceled for the 2026 ceremony, including 'Best Rock,' 'Best Pop Artist,' 'Best Performance of the Year,' 'Best Album,' 'Video for Good,' 'Best Long Video,' 'Best Group,' and 'Song of the Summer.'
Tayl's victories sparked prolonged discussions because her musical style is based on the South African genre Amapiano, pop, and R&B, rather than West African Afrobeats. Tayl herself previously criticized the trend of the Western industry grouping all diverse African music under the general umbrella of 'Afrobeats' in one of her VMA acceptance speeches.
Despite the disappearance of the special category, African artists have achieved recognition in major global genres, such as Nigerian stars Burna Boy and Tems. Burna Boy received two nominations for his collaboration 'Dai Dai' with Colombian superstar Shakira during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, in the 'Best Collaboration' and 'Best Latin' categories. Tems received one nomination for her participation in the hit 'Raindance' with British rapper Dave.
At the 2026 ceremony, Madonna leads the nominations with 11 nominations, followed by Taylor Swift with nine. The MTV Video Music Awards 2026 will take place on Sunday, September 27, 2026, at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles. The broadcast will be available on CBS and MTV channels, as well as on the Paramount+ streaming platform.