Kacey Musgraves will headline a tribute performance honoring Dolly Parton at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards, airing Sept. 27 on CBS and MTV at 7:30 p.m. ET. The appearance marks her first performance at the VMAs in five years.

The tribute lands a month after Parton's death in August. "The world feels a lot less sparkly all of a sudden," Musgraves wrote on X at the time. "Dolly. This really really hurts." She found solace in the thought of Parton reuniting with her husband, Carl Dean, who died in March 2025. "So glad she's with her Carl Dean," Musgraves said. "No one talk to me today."

Musgraves has already been carrying Parton's songbook on the road. Midway through her Middle of Nowhere tour, she performed "Here You Come Again" and "9 to 5" at tour stops in Boston and New York. At Madison Square Garden, she addressed the loss directly.

"I'm not over it, and I'm never gonna be over it," Musgraves told the crowd. "The world definitely lost a light, and it's hard for me to talk about. And I know how much Dolly meant to everybody also in this room. I think why it feels so dark is it's already hard to navigate these times right now, and then we lose a matriarch like that. It's the closest thing we've ever had to royalty."

The VMAs performance gives Musgraves a second stake in the night. She is nominated in the Best Country category for "Dry Spell."

She joins a lineup heavy with tributes and returns. Raye, Sombr, and Teddy Swims will perform a tribute to George Michael, who died nearly a decade ago. Madonna will open the show with her first VMAs performance in 20 years. Additional performers include Gunna, Lisa, Shaboozey, Gener8ion, Sienna Spiro, and Yung Lean.

The Parton tribute positions the 2026 ceremony as a night of elegy as much as celebration, with two late icons honored and a pop titan staging a two-decade comeback within a single broadcast.