Smells like a well-deserved honor for the Band That Changed It All. MTV said Wednesday that Nirvana will receive the VMAs' top career prize, the Video Vanguard Award, during the 2026 ceremony on Sunday, September 27. The...
Smells like a well-deserved honor for the Band That Changed It All.
MTV said Wednesday that Nirvana will receive the VMAs ' top career prize, the Video Vanguard Award, during the 2026 ceremony on Sunday, September 27. The news comes 34 years to the day after Kurt Cobain , Krist Novoselic and future Foo Fighter Dave Grohl and first took the VMAs stage.
By the early '90s, MTV and rock radio had seen brighter days, but there was a watershed moment in September 1991 when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" crashed onto the airwaves. Nirvana's game-changing song and its wild "pep rally" video arrived on MTV's 120 Minutes with that face-slap opening guitar riff - a sped-up "More Than a Feeling," some still claim - and a new everything was born.
RELATED: Kurt Cobain's Guitar From 'MTV Unplugged' Show Draws Record-Shattering Price At Auction
The clip won a pair of Moonmen at the 1992 VMAs, for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Video, and Nirvana performed the Nevermind cut "Lithium" with an intro of "Rape Me" from the In Utero LP that was to street two weeks later.
As the Seattle trio became global stars and the grunge movement made Peak Fashion out of plaid flannel, Nirvana would take the stage for its signature MTV moment. The group recorded an Unplugged session in November 1993 that would become a swan song of sorts for the brilliant but troubled Cobain. It aired a week before Christmas - and just months before he joined rock's 27 Club. the album MTV Unplugged in New York was released in November 1994 and was a global smash.
RELATED: Nirvana, The Supremes, Nile Rodgers, Ma Rainey, Slick Rick Among Grammy Lifetime Achievement Honorees
CBS and MTV will simulcast the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards live at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on September 27.
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