Madonna finds herself in perhaps the most unique and singular experience of any icon that has come before or could possibly come after her. Yes, there have been other women, white and black (e.g. Diana Ross, Janet Jackson, Cher, Barbra Streisand) that have continued a career into “old age.” And yet, Madonna’s circumstances are decidedly unparalleled. Unlike even Aretha Franklin herself, Madonna has remained consistently in the limelight throughout a career still marked by Billboard chart success and a persistent ability to attract headlines (whether she means to or not). To sustain this level of celebrity while still at least attempting to be, shall we say, “relatable” is not without its challenges. Maybe this is the core of Madonna’s disconnect with the mainstream public of late (most recently exemplified by a misunderstanding of humor with a certain “shady” comment directed at Jay-Z and Beyonce).
That disconnect transformed into an even larger chasm last night at the thirty-fifth annual VMAs (Madonna’s career has still lasted just slightly longer than the very awards show that helped her gain her reputation as the Queen of Controversy). With the surprise reveal that Madonna would announce the winner for Video of the Year (it was “Havana” by Camila Cabello–though it should have been Childish Gambino’s “This Is America“), so, too, came the surprise that Madonna would give a tribute speech to the Queen of Soul that was quickly lambasted for being both entirely about her, filled with non sequiturs and basically tone deaf to those who love and respect Aretha as both a woman and artist. Such highlights from the “I”-heavy speech included, “After years of struggling and being broke, I decided to go to auditions for musical theater. I heard the pay was better. I had no training or dreams of ever becoming a singer, but I went for it. I got cut, and rejected from every audition” and “You are probably all wondering why I am telling you this story. There is a connection. Because none of this would have happened, could have happened, without our lady of soul. She led me to where I am today.”
Dressed in attire that suggested she hasn’t fully left Morocco yet (where she celebrated her sixtieth birthday), the speech also caused offense for the “appropriation” factor in addition to the narcissism one (more on that accusation in a moment). Generally speaking, it’s fair to say that Madonna draws out of people more contempt than compassion from the masses–and this has long been the case. But, of late, it has more to do with the fact that she is finding herself in a landscape increasingly intolerant of any indelicate “misstep,” least of all by a white person, formerly so free to be as culturally insensitive as they unwittingly wanted to be, as those marginalized were too afraid to speak out without consequence. As this liberalness with indictments against whites saying essentially anything about other races (even something as tame and non-rife with political intent as, “Obama was the forty-fourth president”)–or poaching elements of their culture–we must ask ourselves why it’s so unacceptable for one person of a certain race to talk about another person of a certain race in the context of citing them as an influence or inspiration. Michael Jackson, a member of the 1958 trifecta that Madonna came up from, was perhaps the most concrete example of bridging a divide between all minorities, particularly white and black. A black person was not offended or irritated if a white person joined in on the “Thriller” choreography. Was this because Michael himself clearly wanted to be white (a desire stemming from the congenital insecurities of being black in a society like America’s) and thus tried to make himself fit into both worlds? Who can say? Whatever the reason, it should be noted that he (and Aretha, until last night) were among the only black artists that a white listener was “allowed” license to have resonate with him or her. This issue about what a person can or can’t respect as a result of their color (or lack thereof) is most assuredly at least part of the reason why most of Madonna’s tributes of the past decade have failed miserably.
As for her me-oriented story, what does it matter if Madonna chooses to use a classic method of Communications 101, in which we are instructed to tell a personal story in order to relate it globally? One supposes she failed to realize that most people, pussies that choose conventional paths that they are, can’t relate to such anecdotes as, “And then, one day, a French disco sensation was looking for backup singers and dancers for his world tour. I thought, ‘Why not?’ The worst that can happen is I could go back to getting robbed, held at gunpoint and being mistaken for a prostitute in my third floor walk-up that was also a crack house.” And so she sang “(You Make Feel Like A) Natural Woman” for them. What she was getting at, in her own roundabout manner, was that Aretha inspired her. Could she have approached the speech in a more overt fashion? Of course. But that wouldn’t be in Madonna’s non-literal character.
Her tributes to Michael Jackson at the VMAs in 2009 and to Prince at the Billboard Music Awards in 2016 received similar scorn, for different but largely the same reasons. It is about 1) the black community seeing Madonna as overstepping her bounds, of not knowing her place as just another white person coveting blackness without truly understanding what struggle comes with that (in keeping with the premise of Get Out) and 2) it’s about the perception that she is speaking about these icons solely from a place of narcissism.
Madonna may have started causing scandals without intent in a post-social media, post-everything is cannon fodder for internet rage world where once she used to carefully curate them, but the result, apparently, is the same. Everyone is still talking about her, what a piece of shit she is and how she should just fade away and age gracefully. A conversation about Madonna, at this point, has nothing to do with music (and rarely has), so much as her galling refusal to not conform to accepted social mores (including how to give a tribute). While a tribute speech to one of the other Queens in the kingdom of an ever non-glistening music industry might not have been the correct venue to exhibit this, nonetheless she did. And if you expect her to apologize for that, then you’ve never listened to “Human Nature“–incidentally a song created as a direct response to backlash and criticism (so who knows, maybe this latest strife with the public will result in a song as well).
Anyway listen, Aretha made it all about her by dying on Madonna’s sixtieth birthday–so maybe payback’s a bitch, if nothing else.
