Madonna Making Her Tribute To Aretha Franklin A Tribute To Madonna Was Power Move City
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Lot of outrage after the VMAs last night. Madonna giving a tribute to the late Aretha Franklin by giving a tribute to Madonna starring herself as Madonna. Using her time up on stage to honor a legend, only not the legend everyone expected.
Madonna opened her heart and expressed herself about Aretha Franklin at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards on Monday night — but was promptly slammed for what turned into an egocentric tribute.
She rambled on about how Franklin, who died Thursday of pancreatic cancer at age 76, helped her launch her own career, according to People.
“Aretha Louise Franklin changed the course of my life. I left Detroit when I was 18, $35 in my pocket. My dream was to make it as a professional dancer. After years of struggling and being broke, I decided to go to auditions for musical theater,” Madge said. [PAGE SIX]
Which begs the question – what did people expect? I mean it’s fucking Madonna. The literal Queen of Pop. The best selling female recording artist of all time, most successful solo act in the history of Billboard, and the highest grossing solo touring artist of all time. You think you get to that level of fame and success because of your lack of ego and willingness to put others ahead of yourself? Wake up. Put Madonna in front of a mic and ask her to talk about someone else while the spotlight is on her – this is how it’s going to work out for you.
“I had no training or dreams of ever becoming a singer but I went for it. I got cut and rejected from every audition — not tall enough, not blend-in enough, not 12-octave-range enough, not pretty enough. Not enough,” she said.
“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 can go back to getting robbed, held at gunpoint and being mistaken for a prostitute in my third-floor walk-up that was also a crackhouse.’ That’s right, I’m a Rebel Heart.”
“So I showed up for the audition and two very large French record producers sat in the empty theater, daring me to be amazing. The dance audition went well. Then they asked me if I had sheet music and a song prepared. I panicked. I had overlooked this important part of the audition process,” she continued.
“I had to think fast, my next meal was on the line. Fortunately one of my favorite albums was ‘Lady Soul’ by Aretha Franklin. I blurted out, ‘You Make Me Feel’ … silence. ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.’ Two French guys nodded at me. I said, ‘You know, by Aretha Franklin.’ ”
“They looked over at the pianist, he shook his head. ‘I don’t need sheet music,’ I said, ‘I know every word. I know the song by heart, I will sing it a cappella.’ I could see that they did not take me seriously — and why should they? Some skinny-ass white girl is going to come up here and belt out a song by one of the greatest soul singers that ever lived? And a cappella … I said, ‘Bitch, I’m Madonna.’ No, I didn’t, I didn’t say that. ‘Cause I wasn’t Madonna yet. I don’t know who I was. I don’t know what I said, I don’t know what came over me.”
Personally I thought that speech was kind of nice. Her whole point was how this woman helped launch her entire career. How she would have never got her big break without Aretha Franklin. If that’s not a tribute that someone would want to hear about their life’s impact I don’t know what is. But I guess it’s true what they say, if you want your posthumous memorial speech done right you gotta do it yourself.
It’s Madonna bitch.
