Kacey Musgraves Honors Dolly Parton At 2026 MTV VMAs

The pre-taped segment aired weeks after Parton's death and drew on a decade of on-stage moments between the two singers, from the 2016 CMAs to the 2019 Grammys.

Kacey Musgraves wasn't at the Peacock Theater on Sunday night, but her voice still filled it. The 2026 MTV VMAs aired a pre-taped tribute in which Musgraves covered Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," a little over a month after Parton's death on August 25 at age 80.

The segment opened with archival footage of Parton introducing the song at some point in her career. "I'd like to leave you fellas with a little bit of advice," she says in the clip. "Don't criticize your wife's judgment. You just remember who she married." She goes on, warmer now: "I hope it treats you real kind and I hope that you have all that you ever dreamed of."

Then Musgraves comes in on the chorus, standing at the mic with her eyes closed for most of it, backed by nothing but a piano. According to Variety, the room gave it a loud, sustained round of applause once she finished.

Musgraves was nominated at this year's VMAs for best country for her track "Dry Spell," per The Hollywood Reporter, but chose to phone this one in from off-site rather than perform live in Los Angeles. Doesn't take away from the fact that this was clearly personal for her.

She's been threading Parton tributes through her tour all through late August. Days after the news broke, at a Boston stop, she dedicated her own song "Rainbow" to Parton and followed it with a cover of "Here You Come Again." At Madison Square Garden not long after, she added a version of "9 to 5" to the set list, a song she's apparently folded into her shows on and off for years anyway.

She didn't hold back talking about it from the stage either. "I'm not over it, and I'm never gonna be over it," she told the MSG crowd, according to Variety. "The world definitely lost a light, and it's hard for me to talk about... It's the closest thing we've ever had to royalty."

The two go back further than this year. Musgraves and Parton shared a stage at the 2019 Grammys for a version of "Here You Come Again," and Musgraves was among the presenters who handed Parton the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2016 CMAs. There was also a 2019 MusiCares night where Musgraves and Katy Perry opened a Parton tribute set before Parton herself walked out in a white gown to join them.

Musgraves has talked about Parton in interviews too, calling her a songwriter first, and a "style icon" and "businesswoman" after that, in a 2021 conversation with Rolling Stone. Right after Parton's death she posted on X that her feed had turned into "Dolly-scrolling," not doom-scrolling, and that she wasn't interested in it going back to normal any time soon.

"I Will Always Love You" was written by Parton and first released in 1973. It hit the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart twice, in 1974 and again in 1982, well before Whitney Houston's version turned it into something else entirely. Sunday's version wasn't trying to be that. It was smaller, quieter, and it seemed to want to stay that way.