Madonna, who infamously offended all who witnessed it with her alleged tribute speech to Aretha Franklin at the VMAs back in August, is not letting us forget just how much the Queen of Soul meant to her, the Queen of Pop and, of course, as has also been made evident by yet another Lady G comment of late, Shade. For there is nothing shadier than never letting people forget that 1) they maligned you for not giving an adequate tribute speech and 2) speaking out against patriarchy on the ultimate holiday celebrating such (for yes, Christmas rather does relish letting a man bask in his glory of martyrdom, which, in turn, has begotten an entire legion of religions that pride themselves on subjugating women as “per the tenets of the Bible”).
So it is that Madonna gave us a snippet of her “birthday speech” from August 16th–the same day Aretha and therefore the music–died. Before even knowing that she would be tapped to say a few words about Aretha publicly, Madonna said them at her milestone sixtieth b-day fête. She captioned it, “An Excerpt from My Birthday Speech in Morocco. The Day Aretha Franklin died…….A tribute to All Women Everywhere who will not be limited by the crumbs The Patriarchy has left for us. Who will not bow down to fear or be silenced by cliches and stereotypes. To those Amazing Warriors who have fought and will continue to fight for equality and freedom, who will never be limited. Merry X-mas.”
Madonna is, at this point, the most and pretty much only vocal “older woman” in pop music who has taken such a firm stance on the ageism against women in the industry (Cher, for some reason, gets exempt from this category while she spends her time “subtly” undermining M with the same sort of zeal that M does so toward Gaga).
Shot in black and white and opening with former go-to dancer (for the Confessions Tour) turned actress Sofia Boutella dancing in the desert of Morocco, Madonna narrates, “Today Aretha Franklin died. Trailblazer and freedom fighter and an amazing artist and…an incredible woman.” She adds, in this spirit of truly giving a woman like Aretha her due, “Women are not really celebrated and honored the way they should be. And hopefully that will change. We’ve struggled through a lot over the centuries. The way we’re raised to think that women have a lifespan and that at a certain age they have to go away. Make the ‘safe’ choice. Shut up. And I’m not interested in those cliches. We must never be limited by an age. We must never be limited by gender. By what society expects us to be. We must never be limited.”
Directed by Nuno Xico, known for his collaborations with M on the MDNA skin campaign commercials (unfortunately featuring the Fat Jewish), the mysticism Madonna was so adept at encapsulating for the “Frozen” video transfers to this vignette quite seamlessly, with Boutella and choreographer Megan Lawson (who executive choreographed Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour) moving and writhing in ways that mimic that very video (it also helps that Lawson seems to have henna tattoos on her hands).
As the screen bursts into flames in a superimposed fashion over the women trying to express themselves, Boutella at one point appears while covering her entire head with a scarf that she eventually tosses at the camera in protest against the societal need to cover women’s mouths when they talk “too much.” With the dramatic and cinematic “Shahmaran” by Sevdaliza playing in the background, the sense of this slow burn we get is further pronounced by Madonna’s deliberate words. Her meticulous and calculated need to make a simultaneous dig at those who accused her of being insensitive toward Aretha and those who continue to tear her and her worth down because of age. But again, when pop stars like Ariana Grande are sixty and still accepted by the music industry without being practically stoned for making a public appearance, it will, once more, be Madonna that we owe a debt to for her fearlessness in never backing down. In never being “interested in cliches.” And she’s been saying as much with regard to shaming women for their age since she was thirty-four and already being “prepped” by the media to pack it in at forty.
