Haters Gonna Hate Madonna

Rolling Stone Magazine Feb. 2015

From the vault, this page appeared and found Madonna in Tokyo in 1987.  Herb Ritts, the photographer whom Madonna had a long history of sitting for, took the picture of her yet to be Madge-ness in her hotel room. Out on the street, she was mobbed by adoring fans, so she had to hold up in her suite. Poor Minnie.

Nearly 30 years later, her fans are still in love.

I have been a fan since the beginning. Isn't that what everyone says, right? Not exactly. Like any other performer, the rise is the honeymoon phase; while the fall is the demonization of the former. I'm not quite sure that Madonna has made a fall yet. She, in my estimation, hit it and has made a plateau of it. Has everything she done been the best? Of course not. But that is one of Madonna's many charms. She always hops right back up on to that horse that caused her to break several bones, figuratively and literally (remember when she really did fall of her horse?).

When someone hates on Madonna, I just don't listen. She's forging a path for many of how not to let age define you, especially women. In an op/ed piece on Huffington Post, Keo Nozari wrote, "'Is there a rule? are people just supposed to die when they're 40?' she famously said in a 1992 interview at age 34, lamenting how people aren't supposed to be "adventurous" or "sexual" after maxing their 30's. Madonna has always challenged culture norms and "rules" about behavior, particularly rules in relation to women and how people are told they can and can't express themselves."

The Nozari piece began after the Grammy Awards with some hating on the fact that Madonna has nothing on Annie Lennox. Team-Lennox cheered for her age-appropriate garment and her soulful rendition of a standard that brought the house down. Madonna, on the other hand, not appropriate. I love Annie Lennox, and that girl can sing, but I was distracted by her garment. I'm not sure what the heck she was wearing. It was so dowdy, and I really had to wonder what she was hiding. Aretha Franklin comes out better looking than her when she performs. Jeez. And if the idea was to not be about the dress, why the sequins? That's a headlight.

As for Madonna's performance ... loved it. And Nozari reports that, "According to TiVO, Madonna's performance was the most-watched part of the entire Grammy night." Interesting.

This is a good time for Madonna. She's got her 6 songs out now that are some of the best she's produced in recent years. And I'm excited that she is working with new producers. I read somewhere that she took Diplo as her date to the Grammy's. He said that he had to go out and buy a proper suit for the occasion. Diplo has produced several of the new tracks on her album. I remember trying to get on to the lawn at Spring Awakening last summer to see his set. The crowd was so intense, and my niece and I couldn't penetrate it. We had to settle on the fringe. I'm not quite as old as Madonna, but I'm of a certain age that didn't see a lot of same on that fringe, but that's okay. The old girl would be right there with me.