Yung Lean and GENER8ION performed Storm II live for the first time at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards. The set also marked the MTV VMA debut for both artists, and it began with Yung Lean walking onto the main stage and smashing a Moon Person statuette on the floor.
The performance came with a large group of dancers and recreated the music video for the second part of the two-part Storm collaboration. Damien Jalet handled the choreography, which gave the number the shape of a staged awards-show reset rather than a simple live run-through.
Storm II at MTV VMAs
At the center of the performance was the first live airing of Storm II. That made the number more than a showcase piece: it doubled as a first awards-show appearance for both artists, at a ceremony where debut performances carry their own weight because they lock an act into the event’s visual memory immediately.
The opening image was sharper than the standard tribute-to-the-night framing. Yung Lean did not just arrive with the song; he arrived carrying a Moon Person statuette and smashed it on the floor before the performance moved forward. The gesture turned the stage entrance into part of the act, not a separate prelude.
Storm and four nominations
The live Storm II set also drew meaning from the earlier part of the collaboration. The first Storm entry was nominated in four categories that evening: Video of the Year, Best Longform Video, Best Direction for Romain Gavras, and Best Choreography for Damien Jalet.
In Video of the Year, Storm was listed alongside works by Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, Madonna, Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift. That nomination slate made the collaboration one of the night’s most prominent contenders, even before the live performance arrived.
Romain Gavras has already won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction for M.I.A.'s Bad Girls video, and Damien Jalet also worked with Thom Yorke on the short film Anima. Those credits help explain why the Storm project could move between awards competition and performance art without feeling improvised.
The final beat cut against the formal staging. As the track was ending, Yung Lean spat a blue ice cream cone into the camera lens, closing a number that had begun with a smashed statuette and ended with an image designed to linger longer than the song itself.
The live debut now leaves the Storm collaboration with two visible markers: four nominations for its first chapter and a first-stage performance for its second. The next question is simple enough — whether that ending image was meant as provocation, punctuation, or both.
