Madonna has been controversial practically since before she was Madonna; as a young, hip girl living in New York, she often couldn’t keep her mouth from running away with her, which didn’t endear her to anyone. Over the years, her rise to fame, then superstardom, then iconic musician has included too many shocking moments to count, and it looks like she hasn’t lost her touch when it comes to pissing people off.
Madge’s current tour, which just stopped in Paris over the weekend, includes a stage show featuring a huge screen onto which images of famous faces are projected, spliced with Madonna’s own face or with one another’s, creating a large montage which flicks by so quickly you can hardly tell who’s who. But a certain French political party leader, Marine Le Pen, caught wind that her face is included in the show and is sporting a rather large swastika on the forehead right before an image of Madonna pops up with a Hitler ‘stache on her lip…and she’s not happy.
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Le Pen took over leadership of the party for her father last year, which is well-known for its controversial views on allowing Muslims to immigrate to France; no doubt Madonna was exercising her right to say how she feels about the party’s political stance through her art, but many are upset at the way she chose to do it, calling it “odious“.
Le Pen says she is pursuing legal action and fired back about the video, saying, “(When) old singers want to get people to talk about them, it’s understandable that they do such extreme things.”
Ouch.
While a lawsuit might keep Madonna from playing the video on the tour, it certainly won’t get her to keep quiet about her opinions, and there’s no doubt she’ll keep shocking audiences like she has for decades. Whether she’s getting into sexual shenanigans with Vanilla Ice (her book “SEX”), kissing an African-American Jesus (“Like A Prayer”), or writing around on the stage in a wedding dress while moaning about feeling like a virgin, Madonna has always found a way to stand out.