MADONNA’S CRIME

It’s become evident that Madonna could find the cure for HIV and cancer today and there would still be people hating on her for it. But the amount of hate towards Madonna’s subtle and respectful tribute to Prince only proves one thing: she was the right choice.

I italicized the word choice here because I don’t think it is even appropriate to describe Madonna’s performance in honor of Prince as a choice. There really wasn’t much of a choice: when it comes to Pop Culture, there are only three icons: Madonna, Prince, and Michael Jackson. Two of them are dead. So Madonna wasn’t a choice. Madonna was the only option. She is the only artist who has the right to do so. And she did it brilliantly and selflessly.

Say what you want about Madonna, but she is bigger and more influential than Prince ever will be - dead or alive. Just like Michal Jackson was. And to have a bigger star like Madonna honor an artist she admired is a reason to celebrate, not to attack. If you’re one of those who will fruitlessly try to argue that Madonna isn’t bigger than Prince, just check the number of albums they have sold. You’ll find out your attempts will be pointless - as a matter of FACT. 

[Gaga’s Intel commercial: the singer signed a deal with the company in order to get David Bowie’s tribute spot at the 2016 Grammy’s]

Had Madonna made a deal with a company and gotten paid to perform, I’d understand the anger. But no, differently from people like Lady Gaga, who signed a commercial deal with Intel to perform a tribute to David Bowie at the Grammy’s, Madonna did it for free. She did it because she admired Prince. And unlike the reported animosity between them, Madonna and Prince never hated each other. On the contrary, evidence shows that they were very fond of one another: 

1980s: 

For starters, they’ve collaborated with each other: they wrote “Love Song” together and he played guitar in “Like a Prayer” and “Act of Contrition.” This happened in the 80s, when Prince and Madonna shared a lot of similarities, including a fondness for scandal, controversy, and overt sexuality.

[Who would have guessed that Madonna showing her ass would be considered an insult years later?]

1990s: 

In the 90s, the similarities between Madonna and Prince became less obvious while they drifted apart artistically. As Madonna’s status as the Queen of Pop solidified as well as her reputation for having the rights to all her music, Prince’s commercial success and influence deteriorated. He didn’t have as much power within the record label anymore, which led him to write and publish an open letter to Madonna asking her to help him in his war against Warner. 

Evidently, no one accused him of using Madonna’s name for attention (the letter could have been given to her privately, but he chose to do it publicly).The woman is always the attention-seeking whore. Never the man. Needless to say, Madonna must have helped him, discreetly, without the publicity he was seeking, since a few months later, they were dining together along other friends: 

Strangely, people keen on dissing Madonna and fueling the rumors of her alleged feud with Prince seem to always ignore the fact that Prince reached out to Madonna and was seen dining with her.

2000s:

Then in the 2007, there was that time when Madonna was leaving a party and Prince ran after her to give her a hug before she left. Another public demonstration of how much he disliked her, don’t you think?

Pretty much Prince and Madonna have always been respectful and friendly toward each other. It happened in the 80s, in the 90s, and in the 00s. What about now? We’re halfway through a new decade! Prince must have been hating Madonna lately, right? Well…

2010s: 

In case you don’t already know, a few months ago while Madonna was in town with her REBEL HEART TOUR, Prince played an exclusive show for Madonna and her tour crew at Paisley Park in the middle of the night, after her concert. In other words: Madonna ended her show, went to Prince’s complex with her dancers and band, where he performed and “serenaded” her, as witnesses told the press. The kind of thing you do to someone you can’t stand, right? 

So the evidence is clear: despite rumors of a feud based on hearsay,Madonna and Prince clearly supported each other. So for all these new,sudden, die-hard Prince fans hating on Madonna: fuck off! And I will go further: you don’t have the right to demand or criticize anything: you weren’t there for Prince when he was alive, so don’t attack those who have actually been with him along the way. If you had been that big of a fan when Prince was alive, you wouldn’t have let his career die decades before he did. 

Yes, I went there. 

Like it or not, Prince’s career has been dead for decades. You, new sudden die-hard fans, weren’t buying his albums; you weren’t buying his concert tickets either! So stop with the hate now! 

Case in point: Prince struggled and failed to sell out a tour that mostly played in small theaters (his last tour):

Prince’s last tour: 20 shows (18 in theaters, 2 in arenas). None of the arena shows were sold out. He also failed to sell out all the tickets available for the small theater shows (a fact, not an opinion). So where were all these die-hard fans hating on Madonna when Prince was alive?

Madonna, a bigger star than Prince will ever be paid him a respectful and decent tribute. Madonna sounded great. She sang live and she did not disappoint. You may not like her, or the choice of songs she made, or even the tribute itself. What you can’t do is say she wasn’t the right person to do so. 

It seems to me that the hate Madonna’s getting is more related to the fact that she is still around, healthy in mind, body, and soul, and worse: with a very successful career. The horrible crime Madonna has committed is that her unstoppable drive and success is a reminder of how much our other idols (and ourselves) have failed in the long run.

Long live the Queen.  

source: pawsdownlittlemonsters