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Kacey Musgraves led a touching tribute to Dolly Parton at the MTV Video Music Awards 2026, honoring the late country icon just a month after her death with a rendition of “I Will Always Love You.”
The pre-taped performance
began with footage of Parton introducing the classic 1974 tune. “I’d like to leave you fellas with a little bit of advice,” she said. “Don’t criticize your wife’s judgment. You just remember who she married. Just kidding you. There’s a lot of truth in that and I would also like to say about life, I hope it treats you real kind and I hope that you have all that you ever dreamed of.”
She then began singing the chorus of “I Will Always Love You” as Musgraves joined in, accompanied by a piano. Musgraves stood perched at the mic with her eyes closed for most of the performance, which was met by thunderous applause from the audience.
Following Parton’s death in August, Musgraves dedicated her song “Rainbow” to Parton at her concert at Boston’s TD Garden, followed by a rendition of her 1977 classic “Here You Come Again.” Then, at her “Middle of Nowhere” tour stop at New York City’s Madison Square Garden just a few days later, she covered “9 to 5,” a song that she’d included in her shows over the years.
“I’m not over it, and I’m never gonna be over it,” she told the MSG crowd regarding Parton’s death. “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.”
Musgraves had also shared the stage with Parton at the 2019 MusiCares Person of the Year event, where she kicked off a tribute to the country icon alongside Katy Perry for a duet on “Here You Come Again.” The Queen of Nashville herself then joined them in a white dress with flowing sleeves.
Musgraves has been vocal about her appreciation for Parton in the past, telling Rolling Stone in 2021 that she appreciated her as a “style icon” and a “businesswoman.” “First and foremost she’s a songwriter,” she said. “But she wasn’t afraid to be a beautiful, sexy woman, proud of her femininity, proud of her body. It just seems like she didn’t ever need to shrink her flamboyant nature to fit among the men that she worked with.”
