How Madonna Ruined her Aretha Franklin Tribute, Twitter Reacts

3 Min Read
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 20: Madonna speaks onstage during the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on August 20, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for MTV)

The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin passed away on the 16th of August 2018 at the age of 76. Since then, there has been tribute after tribute for the fallen singer

And come the VMAs, it seemed fitting initially to have another icon pay tribute to her in the person of Madonna, who incidentally turned 60 on Aretha Franklin’s death day.

The singer took to the stage to pay tribute to Franklin, but instead made almost the entire speech  about herself

Where people expected to hear glowing words about the first woman to make it into the Rock n Roll hall of fame and a woman who had a career spanning over 40 years, they got instead anecdotes of how Madonna made it to stardom. Madonna was the main character of her story, Aretha Franklin was relegated to the role of bit-part player.

Madonna dived into a story of an audition she went for where she had to perform a hit from Franklin (You make me feel like a Natural woman)

“I could see that they did not take me seriously, and why should they?” Madonna said of the music producers running the audition. “Some skinny ass while girl is going to come up here and belt out a song from one of the greatest soul singers who ever lived a capella?”

“I said, ‘Bitch, I’m Madonna,’” she told the crowd at Radio City Music Hall“No, I didn’t, I wasn’t Madonna yet. I don’t know who I was.”

Minutes went by and Madonna was still talking about herself

She did eventually circle back to Aretha Franklin, but it seemed like a case of too little too late; “None of this would have happened, could have happened, without our lady of soul,” Madonna said. “She led me to where I am today. And I know she influenced so many people in this house tonight, in this room tonight. And I want to thank you, Aretha, for empowering all of us. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Long live the queen.”

People were naturally displeased with this self-indulgent behaviour and they reacted on Twitter. You can see some of the reactions below

 

https://twitter.com/AR_Different/status/1031746521463697408

https://twitter.com/kingsleyyy/status/1031746537527767040

You can check out the full list of winners for the VMAs here

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