Madonna had kept quiet for five days after being upstaged by a middle finger shot to the crowd and cameras by M.I.A. during her five seconds or so of close-up time during the 13-minute lip-sync halftime show during Super Bowl XLVI. On Friday, Madonna spoke publicly for the first time about the incident.
“I was really surprised,” Madonna said in an appearance on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show. “I didn’t know anything about it. I wasn’t happy about it. I understand it’s punk rock and everything, but to me there was such a feeling of love and good energy, and positivity it seemed negative. It’s such a teenager . . . irrelevant thing to do . . . there was such a feeling of love and unity there what was the point? It was just out of place.”
In short, Madonna told M.I.A., “Get off my lawn.”
The irony is that, when Madonna was much older than a teenager, she was engaging in “teenager . . . irrelevant things to do,” all in the name of getting attention and/or notoriety and/or ultimately making more money.
But she failed to realize someone would do to her exactly what she would have done to Cher or Diana Ross or Michael Jackson whoever else would have been reckless enough to invite Madonna onto the stage 25 years or so ago and to give her only a few seconds of time in the spotlight.
