wildest

MADONNA has already appeared to take over this weekend’s MTV Video Music Awards, after scoring the most nominations and is expected to hit the stage with a record-breaking performance.

The notorious Queen of Pop outshines Taylor Swift with the most nominations of the night (a whopping 11) and is expected to sweep many categories with songs from her 15th studio album, Confessions II.

She’s also opening the ceremony for the fifth time before handing the mic over to this year’s host, Snoop Dogg, to continue the show at the Los Angeles Peacock Theater on Sunday.

But long before Madonna, 68, collaborated with Sabrina Carpenter for their pop-dance hit, Bring Your Love, and introduced Gen-Zers to her classics like Vogue and Like a Prayer, she delivered many other memorable moments at the VMAs.

Below are some of the most talked-about memories from Madonna’s past VMA appearances throughout her decades-long career.

Madonna’s white dress (1984)

For those who’ve followed Madonna since the early days of her singing career, her infamous 1984 VMAs opening performance of Like a Virgin immediately comes to mind as one of her wildest moves.

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The singer kicked off the show with a fiery performance of her hit track, wearing a full wedding gown and veil.

Her dress featured a skintight, lace, corset-like top with a sweetheart neckline and a poofy tulle skirt that fell to her knees.

Madonna sang on top of a massive wedding cake before rolling and twirling around on stage.

The performance was controversial at the time, and her publicist even thought it was a career-ender before it became an iconic moment for the books.

Infamous on-stage kiss (2003)

Viewers were once again enamored when Madonna joined pop princesses Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on stage for a super-sized performance.

The trio made history with their super-sexy outfits and provocative routine, first as Britney and Christina honored Madonna with a duet of Like a Virgin while wearing wedding gowns.

Madonna then emerged from a giant wedding cake and belted out her track Hollywood, before meeting the ladies on the dance floor.

The performance continued with the threesome stripping down into skimpy lingerie and Madonna sharing a steamy kiss with both pop stars.

Rapper Missy Elliott then joined them to finish out the performance, as the star-studded audience looked in awe.

Marie Antoinette in Vogue (1990)

Madonna gave another show-stopping performance of her classic song Vogue at the 1990 awards show, where she completely transformed herself into Marie Antoinette.

She fully committed to the part, wearing an 18th-century dress that accentuated her chest, a sky-high blonde wig, and heavy makeup.

Many male and female dancers also joined her onstage doing racy moves, including climbing on her skirt, kissing her cheek, and bringing their heads to her chest.

Team Ariana (2018)

If there’s one thing Madonna might not be the best at, it’s hiding her true feelings from the camera.

She demonstrated this in 2018, when she failed to mask her disappointment over Camila Cabello winning Video of the Year over powerhouse singer Ariana Grande.

Madonna presented the coveted award, which she won in 1998, but looked disapproving before announcing Camila as the winner.

She could then be heard saying under her breath, “Y’all suck for that,” while the former Fifth Harmony star made her way to the stage.

Camila then praised Madonna during her acceptance speech, as the legendary singer stood there looking annoyed.

Leather Goddess (2021)

Madonna again stole the show in 2021 when she attended the VMAs in an extremely skimpy leather outfit.

The Material Girl singer opened the show by taking off a massive trench coat to reveal her skintight leather thong bodysuit.

She strutted around onstage in the sexy ensemble, which completely exposed her bare butt beneath her fishnet stockings.

Her boobs also nearly busted out of the tight corset-like suit, which she paired with black leather gloves, a matching hat, and high heels.

Madonna stood out with her racy costume, even in a room packed with A-list stars commemorating MTV’s 40th anniversary.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the iconic singer rocked similar attire at this year’s ceremony, perhaps even as she marks her fifth time opening the show.

Other performers include LISA and RAYE, who will make their VMAs performing debuts, as well as Shaboozey, Sienna Spiro, among others.

The two-hour-long ceremony will air live nationwide on CBS and be simulcast on MTV on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. EST/4:30 p.m. PST.

MEGAN Stalter has shocked the Emmys red carpet, transforming into a literal golden statue for the 78th awards ceremony.

The Hacks star turned heads in a gold bikini and matching body paint for the night’s boldest look.

In true eccentric style, Stalter covered herself head-to-toe in gold, complete with angel wings and a golden orb.

Stalter arrived with her Hacks co-star and bestie Paul W. Downs, who wore a sharp black tux.

The 35-year-old is up for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy for playing Kayla Schaefer in the fifth and final season of HBO Max’s Hacks.

It is her first Emmy nomination.

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Kayla, the over privileged and clueless assistant on the HBO’s hit series, was her first acting job.

Stalter is no stranger to outlandish red carpet attires.

In January she attended the Critics Choice awards with her co-star, mimicking Kylie Jenner’s all-orange look which she had worn with boyfriend Timothy Chalamet to the Marty Supreme premiere.

At last year’s Emmys, the actress opted for a simple pair of jeans and a T-shirt – in a deliberate non-statement.

In 2025 at the Las Culturistas Culture Awards, she wore a corset-style top made from actual Diet Coke packaging.

In April, the actress told Marie Claire: “Every red carpet appearance or anything that I get to do in front of people, I want to have fun and make the most of it because it’s my dream.

“We worked really hard to get here, and now I want to enjoy it.”

Stalter is up against her castmate Hannah Einbinder, who won the category last year, plus Janelle James for Abbott Elementary, Michelle Pfeiffer for Margo’s Got Money Trouble and Jessica Williams for Shrinking.

One amused commenter reacted to her look and said: “If they don’t give her the statue, she IS the statue.”

Hacks recently wrapped its fifth and final season which is up for 24 Emmy nominations at this year’s ceremony.

It is the second most nominated show this year, just trailing one award behind The Pitt.

This years Primetime Emmy Awards are being held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

It will air on NBC and Peacock and is hosted by Mariska Hargitay.

I wasn’t exactly in “Sunday best”, but I had made some effort. Well, I’d changed my underwear for the first time in a couple of days and given myself a baby-wipe bath. Still, as we filed into the chapel at Alkavare, I felt more a member of an expedition than a congregation. We sat on the low wooden benches, waterproof jackets rustling and leather walking boots stamping on the flagstone floor to keep warm. Fortunately, the priest, Mogens Amstrup Jacobsen, appeared to be a “man of the Gore-Tex”, as well as a man of the cloth, as he unzipped his own black rain jacket to reveal his dog collar. As the service began, the Arctic wind whipped through cracks in the dry stone walls, insulated only with reindeer hair, and candles flickered in their brass sconces.

I had hiked to Alkavare following the Präststigen, or “Priests’ trail”, a 37-mile (60km) route from Kvikkjokk that could stake a claim as Europe’s wildest pilgrimage route, and certainly one of its most beautiful. The Präststigen follows the path that priests would once have taken to the chapel, built in 1788, to perform a service each summer, and today, on the last weekend in July, intrepid hikers and perseverant pilgrims can attend that same service.

Alkavare sits on the western border of Sweden’s Sarek national park, home to many of the country’s highest mountains and steepest valleys, yet with no campsites or tourist huts and only scant sections of the more famous Kungsleden trail. There are no other marked paths and to hike here means wild camping, a heavy backpack and a sense of adventure. It was described by famed Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld in 1926 as vår sista stora vildmark – “our last great wilderness”.

“I hate it when people use the term ‘wilderness’,” Christian Heimrot from Laponia Adventures, a local guiding operator, told me, as I joined him on the research exhibition for a new Präststigen group trip launching next year. “This is a living landscape, people have lived, worked and shaped this land for thousands of years.” Indeed, Sarek national park, (as part of the wider Laponia region), was recognised as a Unsesco World Heritage Site in 1996 for both its cultural and natural value.

The Sami, Europe’s last Indigenous population, have braided themselves into these landscapes as tightly and beautifully as the thread of pewter in their traditional handicrafts. The Sami word for the Laponia area is Sápmi, the same word they use to refer to themselves, highlighting the indelible link between people and their environment. Sarek sits on the Sami’s traditional reindeer herding grounds. While they might now use motorcycles and snowmobiles to follow and herd the reindeer, their knowledge of and kinship with this landscape remains undimmed.

So, not wilderness, then, but certainly wild. To even reach the start of the Präststigen, I had crossed the Arctic Circle on the road north from Luleå, met with Christian at his warehouse in Jokkmokk (home to the famous Sami winter markets each February) to load up our rucksacks for the six-night trip, and journeyed an hour farther west to the town of Kvikkjokk. From there the trailhead was a short boat ride across Sakkat lake.

The first section of the trail climbed steeply, switchbacks tightly coiled in birch woodland; wild blueberries and cloudberries littered the path. Eventually we left the woodland and reached the ridge for our first proper view of Sarek. Away to the north was the cloud-covered summit of Bårddetjåhkkå, where in 1911 Swedish geologist Axel Hamberg built an observatory to conduct meteorological and glacial studies.

We slept soundly, as we eased into the rhythms of wild camping – water collected from a gin-clear lake, a hearty supper of reindeer stew, and an eye mask to keep out the midnight sun. The next day we hiked deeper into Sarek via the Vállevágge, the skies the blue of the Swedish flag, the silence only disrupted by the occasional breath of wind.

We were following the guidebook Priest’s Path by Hans Fowelin (currently only published in Swedish), and while there was no marked trail, Fowelin had plotted a path of cairns we were supposedly to follow. While some were solidly built square towers, most were little more than one rock propped up against another, mere whispers of waymarkers in a landscape of scree and moraine.

Alongside the familiar buttercups and heather there were bright blue blossoms of mountain gentian, red ptarmigan berries and otherworldly looking wild angelica, a source of vitamin C for the Sami. Sarek was visited by botanist Carl Linnaeus during his epic expedition through northern Sweden in 1732, and the first part of the Priest’s trail is sometimes referred to as Linnaeus’s trail.

On our fourth day of hiking Alkavare chapel appeared on a bluff above the glacial blue waters of Alggajavvre lake, surrounded by high peaks and valleys. It was utterly beautiful. I had a grin on my wind-burnt face for most of the day, one that even wading across rivers (a common feature of hiking in Sarek), shin-high in glacial meltwater, failed to dim.

After rowing across the Miellätno river, using one of the rowing boats left on each bank by the park rangers, we climbed up to the chapel late on Saturday evening where Jacobsen greeted us with a beaming smile.

Over tea, he told us he had been dropped off by helicopter at Alkavare with his family on Friday morning and this was his first time leading the service here. Others in the diocese no longer volunteered. “It is physical, hard work and the days are long,” he said, before heading off to re-tar the chapel’s roof and fix one of the rowing boats that had come loose and floated away down the river – returned, later, swinging beneath a helicopter.

Sunday mass began promptly at 11am the following morning for our small band of pilgrims (we numbered 11 in total, including the priest). The altar had a simple wooden cross and cloths on loan from the church in Jokkmokk. They were in the poster paint palate of traditional Sami clothing and a reminder that it was for the Sami that the chapel had been originally built – not an act of benevolence, but as part of the forced Christianisation and eradication of their shamanistic beliefs in the 18th century.

After the service we sat outside for coffee and pastries, before beginning our hike home. Christian was keen that we hiked via Sweden’s point of inaccessibility or otillgänglighetspunkten, just over the border from Sarek in the Padjelanta national park. This is the country’s point furthest from any road or town, about 31 miles (50km) in fact, and is often cited as western Europe’s remotest too. Marked with no cairn or monument, just a circle of quartz stones and a trio of reindeer antlers, it felt no more or less remote than most of the previous week’s hiking. And I was struck that what made Sarek and the Präststigen special wasn’t just the scenery, as beautiful as it was, it was the people – the Sami, Hamberg and Linneaus, and the motley congregation we’d briefly joined, and it was a route firmly deserving of more visitors. “I told you,” Christian said, grinning, “It isn’t a wilderness.”

The trip was provided by Laponia Adventures, which will lead a guided, small-group trip along the Priest’s Path to Alkavare in July 2027, and offers equipment rental and advice for independent hikers. For more information on Sarek national park and northern Sweden, visit arcticsweden.com