Madonna Blasts Radio Stations For Ageism Against Women

Madonna has blasted radio stations for only playing the music of younger musicians, explaining in her no-holds-barred fashion, 'It's bullsh*t - but that's the way it is.'

The singer, currently in the middle of her successful Rebel Heart tour, tells journalist Cameron Adams for Australia's Daily Telegraph that 'Radio is ageist. If you’re not in your twenties they won’t play you on the radio. It’s bullsh - but that’s the way it is. It is disappointing. We live in an ageist society. I’ve tried my hardest to do whatever I can to change peoples’ perception of women, of age, of what is possible and why should any of us limit ourselves in any way, shape or form regardless of our sex, our sexual preference, our age, our religious beliefs, our race etc. So for me it’s shocking in this day and age where we’re now accepting gay marriages that we still treat women in a very sexist way. That’s one frontier that has not been conquered. Because if I was a man, things would be different....'

Madonna also used the interview to set the record straight on rumours that she and ex-husband Sean Penn had rekindled their romance, following his split from actress Charlize Theron.

'We’ve been friends for ages,' Madonna clarifies. As for the rumours....'Yeah, but we're friends.'

Madonna, who still has a didgeridoo in her London home as a souvenir of her 1993 tour Down Under, also explains why she will never be tempted by a Greatest Hits tour.

'I don’t want to just sing all my hits, that’s so boring. There needs to be a thread that connects them all, they have to flow from one to the other seamlessly, and for me it’s always a challenge to make that happen.'

Madonna impressed her fans last night with a spontaneous concert in Paris's Place de la Republique, the main site for tributes for victims of the recent attacks on the city.

Following her concert on Wednesday evening in the French capital, she tweeted that she would be heading to the square for a further appearance. Once she'd arrived, she launched into moving renditions of her song 'Ghosttown', John Lennon's 'Imagine' and her own 'Like a Prayer'.

The star told the crowd: “Everybody knows why we’re here....we just want to sing a few songs about peace, just to spread love and joy, and to pay our honour and respect to the people who died almost four weeks ago. And to spread light....we all need it.'

From www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Comments

[Mandy]

@Rabbit Bunny: I think that may certainly be the case in the US, but not the UK (until recently). All the tracks released from COADF and Hard Candy were played to death in the UK. It was onyl with the release of the radio-unfriendly MDNA that the airplay stopped. M's back catalogue still receives a lot of airplay in the UK; I think it is the quality/type of material on MDNA and Rebel Heart that is the root cause here, not the age issue.

[Tommy]

@jackj: Great post! Another thing that needs to be factored in, I believe, is her decision to move to London to revitalise her career (in the first instance - and it certainly worked in Europe) and her then remaining for almost a decade when married to Ritchie. She was then "disowned" by a lot of casual US fans, as far as I can see, and even mocked. (Remember the reference in Sex and the City when Samantha adopted a mock 'British' accent? Carrie retorted, "She's got a case of the Madonnas.")

[jackj]

Agree with @Rabbit Bunny. Unfortunately, Madonna made two major miscalculations: Drowned World Tour & American Life album. Even though Drowned World Tour is a "real fan"-favorite because of its theatrics and uniqueness the casual fans were disappointed because Madonna chose to play only a couple of songs from her old catalog. After that first punch came American Life and the video for the title track, which was pulled but not before everyone in the US found out what it portrayed. And at that time, any negative remarks about the war in Iraq got any and all artists in the hot seat. So, that was the second punch that alienated her causal fans even more. Madonna tried her best with the Re-invention Tour (as I remember seeing an ad that said "Watch Madonna play her greatest hits") and Confessions on a Dance floor album but it was never the same. That's when we started seeing Madonna loose ground on US radio even though she worked just as hard in promoting any new music. It's just too bad because Rebel Heart, in my opinion, is one of the best albums she made since Ray of Light.

[Rabbit Bunny]

If Madonna would get airplay on Rock stations, I think that would help her cause. Ever since American Life, Radio has been no help to her at all!

[Tracy]

A Greatest Hits Tour may be boring to you, Madonna, but I guarantee you would get crowds similar to Confessions, i.e. HUGE, if you were to do such a tour. Your records sales of your current material are low, to say the least, but many people and more casual fans would still pay top dollar to hear your back catalogue (i.e. COADF backwards).