The Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter collaboration started with a delay, an impatient pop icon and a direct message. It ended with “Bring Your Love” winning Best Collaboration at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards on September 27.
Accepting the Moon Person alongside Carpenter, Madonna explained that the usual industry channels had failed to produce an answer within five days. For most people, that is not exactly an emergency. Madonna had other ideas.
Why did Madonna contact Sabrina Carpenter directly?
“Everybody who knows me knows how impatient I am,” Madonna said during her acceptance speech. She added that after five days without confirmation that Carpenter wanted to record with her, “I DMed her.”
The direct approach worked. Carpenter replied, and the two singers moved quickly from private messages to a recording session.
“Within weeks, we were in the studio together,” Madonna said. “It was fabulous.”
Carpenter later clarified that her representatives had not ignored Madonna. “My team replies, just so everybody knows! They do respond to people, but I respond faster,” she said. “So, direct line to me is always the best way to get in contact.”
Apparently, the lesson for music legends is simple: management remains useful, but Instagram may be quicker.
What was it like recording “Bring Your Love”?
Once they began working together, Madonna said she found Carpenter highly professional, a quality she suggested is becoming less common.
“I love working with you because you are so professional,” she told Carpenter onstage. “And in this day and age, it's really hard to find professional people to work with.”
Their schedules were not perfectly aligned, though Madonna presented that as a practical arrangement rather than a problem.
“When I show up late, she shows up early, so it works out,” she joked.
Madonna also said they shared similar writing habits. “And she has OCD, and so do I. We write our lyrics down on pieces of paper, like they did in the 1800s.” Pen and paper have survived another technological revolution, somehow.
Dropping the jokes, Madonna told the “Manchild” singer that working together had been “wonderful” and added, “I love the song.”
How successful was Madonna at the 2026 VMAs?
“Bring Your Love” earned Madonna and Carpenter the award for Best Collaboration, but it was not Madonna’s only major result of the night.
The “Like a Virgin” singer led the 2026 nominations and also won Artist of the Year, adding another Moon Person to a collection that hardly needed help looking substantial.
Carpenter joined Madonna onstage to accept the collaboration award, giving the pair a chance to explain how the song came together and settle the important question of whether Carpenter’s team answers messages. According to Carpenter, it does. She simply answers faster.
