ill advised publicity stunts

Madonna Has a Perfectly Reasonable Explanation for That Swastika

Madonna introduces Avicii as part of Day Two of Ultra Music Festival 14 at Bayfront Park on March 24, 2012 in Miami, Florida.
Photo: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

Though she was sued over the video projection that superimposes a swastika on French right-winger Marine Le Pen’s head, Madonna has refused to remove the offending shot from her MDNA tour. Now she is out defending her choice of imagery. Her explanation, as given to a Brazilian television station, involves the argument that “Nobody Knows Me,” the song in question, addresses “intolerance” and “how much we judge people before knowing them.” “Music should be about ideas, right?” she added. (Though it is hard to tell, because the video clip is megadubbed in Portuguese. Here is what we actually could understand, in English: “There’s a battle going on right now”; “I think you’re not an artist if …”; “I was raised Catholic”; and “full of hypocrisy.” Not mentioned: “attention.”)

Madonna Has an Explanation for That Swastika