MTV Unplugged in New York is the first live album by the American rock band Nirvana, released by DGC Records on November 1, 1994, nearly seven months following the suicide of Kurt Cobain.

In a break with MTV Unplugged tradition, Nirvana used some electric amplification and effects, and played mainly lesser-known material and covers, with performances of songs by the Vaselines, David Bowie, Lead Belly and Meat Puppets.

They were joined by the rhythm guitarist Pat Smear and the cellist Lori Goldston, alongside Meat Puppets members Cris and Curt Kirkwood for some songs.

Producer Alex Coletti recalled that the network was unhappy with the lack of hit Nirvana songs, and with the choice of the Meat Puppets as guests, saying: "They wanted to hear the 'right' names – Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos or God knows who.

However, the task of compiling the album was too emotionally difficult for Novoselic and Grohl, so the project was cancelled a week after the announcement;[15] the group opted to release just the Unplugged performance.

Bonus features consisted of the original broadcast version of the performance, a 1999 MTV special titled Bare Witness: Nirvana Unplugged featuring the recollections of MTV producers and audience members, and five full-band songs taped during the pre-show rehearsal: "Come as You Are", "Polly", "Plateau", "Pennyroyal Tea", and "The Man Who Sold the World".

[26] Rolling Stone writer Barbara O'Dair found the record "stirring and occasionally brilliant" with "spare and gorgeous spots everywhere", highlighting the band's chemistry on "All Apologies" and Cobain's unaccompanied performance of "Pennyroyal Tea".

[27] Ben Thompson from Mojo felt that unlike most "unplugged" releases, the format's "colourless, generic aspect" and not seeing the actual performance benefits Nirvana's record because of how intense it seems in light of Cobain's death.

"[22] MTV Unplugged in New York was voted the fourth-best album of the year in Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of prominent American critics published by The Village Voice.

[32] Robert Christgau, the poll's supervisor, also ranked the album fourth in his own year-end list,[33] deeming it a testament to Cobain's depth of feeling, "sincerity" as a vocalist, and distinction from other sensitive alternative rock types such as Eddie Vedder and Lou Barlow: "The vocal performance he evokes is John Lennon's on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

"[21] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine said MTV Unplugged in New York was "fearlessly confessional", as it found Nirvana and Cobain "on the verge of discovering a new sound and style".

[19] Jason Mendelsohn from PopMatters believed its intimate folk rock quality was radical from Nirvana and Cobain, "as crass of a business move as it was" by their record label.

[34] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), journalist Charles M. Young called it Nirvana's "second masterpiece" after Nevermind, and claimed that Cobain could have "revolutionized folk music the same way he had rock" because of his striking voice; he said his songs worked equally well with "a loud band bashing away behind you" or "with just an acoustic guitar".

[28] Maeve McDermott of USA Today called it "an album of transcendent folk rock that glimpsed what could've been the band's next post-grunge era, had frontman Kurt Cobain survived long enough to see its musical leanings through.

"[35] The Guardian wrote that MTV Unplugged in New York had become "inextricably linked" to Cobain's death a few months after its recording, citing the funereal set design and the sense that Nirvana was "on the verge of a new musical direction, beyond their grunge roots".

[37] A 2013 article by critic Andrew Wallace Chamings in The Atlantic described it as one of the greatest live performances of all time:[38] For the final line, "I would shiver the whole night through," Cobain jumps up an octave, forcing him to strain so far he screams and cracks.

[48] Reviewing the DVD release in 2007, the Los Angeles Times wrote that it "deserves a place on the rock TV history shelf alongside the informal, sit-down section of Elvis Presley's epic comeback special in 1968".

[49] In 2018, during their divorce settlement proceedings, the court rejected Silva's request for spousal support, ownership of their house and reimbursement of his legal fees but awarded him the guitar.