In an era where it’s more common than not to completely shit on Madonna (generally because of her age), it’s uncannily refreshing to learn that one of the few major entities that hasn’t turned its back on Madonna is Billboard.
Though they briefly lowered their standards last year upon awarding Lady Gaga (incidentally Madonna’s on again, off again nemesis) the distinction in spite of the fact that her only musical output in 2015 was the Linda Perry-wary, Oscar-nominated track “Til It Happens To You,” Billboard seems to have regained its senses by selecting the creamy smooth pop icon goddess as its choice for an accurate representation of what it means to be a record-breaking iconoclast.
In addition to shattering just about every expectation consistently throughout her now thirty-plus year career, Billboard’s motives for electing Madonna this time around pertain most notably to her Rebel Heart Tour, which sold over one million tickets and grossed 1.31 billion dollars across four continents. Elsewhere, her philanthropic blitzkrieg of late (typically maligned by cynics like Morrissey, another in the arsenal of Madonna despisers unfortunately) has been a source of endearment to Billboard, with the publication pointing out that “Madonna’s Raising Malawi organization is currently constructing Malawi’s first pediatric surgery and intensive care unit, which will double the number of life-saving surgeries performed on children each year, provide intensive care after critical surgeries, and train specialized Malawian medical staff.”
All of this accomplished merely in the past year is a minimal sampling of Madonna’s creative and humanitarian output. But then, most will still negate her being deserving of any accolades. And again, for the sole argument that she’s “old” and “over.”
