Watch Madonna’s Emotional Billboard Women in Music 2016 Speech
more at Billboard
Madonna has long been a trailblazer in music and fashion, and earlier this week she pulled a first of the most irreverent kind by twerking for James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke. The singer took her place at the top of a list of seriously talented artists on the red carpet of the Billboard Women in Music awards in New York City today, where she was honored as Woman of the Year. The legendary performer loves to push the envelope with her style—remember the custom Givenchy number she wore to this year’s Met Gala or her homage to Prince at the Billboard Music Awards in May?—and her new latest look didn’t disappoint. Stylist Arianne Phillips worked with Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele on the highly graphic suit which featured a distinctive flora and fauna motif, and a hidden message. “[The suit was] made more special with embroidery that means ‘the Greek goddess of music that brings joy,’ ” said Phillips.
Raising the bar on her ensemble were equally dazzling jewels: earrings from Sarah Hendler, rings from Jacob & Co. and Lynn Ban, bracelets by Eddie Borgo, and a drop necklace from Bulgari. As Phillips put it, they were “perfect for such a momentous honor befitting the Queen of Pop herself.”
More at Vogue
Madonna — a global icon who extended her record as the highest-grossing female touring artist of all time in 2016 — was honored as Woman of the Year at Billboard’s Women In Music 2016 event on Friday (Dec. 9). And during her acceptance speech, she was fully ferocious, funny and brutally honest — in other words, she was the Madonna we’ve known and adored since she debuted more than 30 years ago.
Madonna, unsurprisingly, stole the show the moment she took the stage. Her weapon? Something you can’t contain, fake, reproduce or put a price on: Blunt, personal truth.
After opening with a joke — “I always feel better with something hard between my legs” Madonna said, straddling the microphone stand — she got candid very quickly.
“I stand before you as a doormat. Oh, I mean, as a female entertainer,” Madonna said. “Thank you for acknowledging my ability to continue my career for 34 years in the face of blatant sexism and misogyny and constant bullying and relentless abuse.”
Madonna’s sprawling, revealing speech took us back to her life as a teenager when she first moved to New York.
“People were dying of AIDS everywhere. It wasn’t safe to be gay, it wasn’t cool to be associated with the gay community,” Madonna recalled. “It was 1979 and New York was a very scary place. In the first year I was held at gunpoint, raped on a rooftop with a knife digging into my throat and I had my apartment broken into and robbed so many times I stopped locking the door. In the years that followed, I lost almost every friend I had to AIDS or drugs or gunshots.”
From that, Madonna told the Women In Music crowd she learned a vital lesson: “In life there is no real safety except for self-belief.”
Madonna also talked about a lesson she thought she learned from David Bowie… only that lesson, it turned out, didn’t quite apply to her. “I was of course inspired by Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde and Aretha Franklin, but my real muse was David Bowie. He embodied male and female spirit and that suited me just fine. He made me think there were no rules. But I was wrong. There are no rules — if you’re a boy. There are rules if you’re a girl,” Madonna said.
Among those rules: “If you’re a girl, you have to play the game. You’re allowed to be pretty and cute and sexy. But don’t act too smart. Don’t have an opinion that’s out of line with the status quo. You are allowed to be objectified by men and dress like a slut, but don’t own your sluttiness. And do not, I repeat do not, share your own sexual fantasies with the world. Be what men want you to be, but more importantly, be what women feel comfortable with you being around other men. And finally, do not age. Because to age is a sin. You will be criticized and vilified and definitely not played on the radio.”
Madonna also opened up about the time in her life when she felt “like the most hated person on the planet,” with her eyes tearing up and her nose running a bit.
“Eventually I was left alone because I married Sean Penn, and not only would he would bust a cap in your ass, but I was off the market. For a while I was not considered a threat. Years later, divorced and single — sorry Sean — I made my Erotica album and my Sex book was released. I remember being the headline of every newspaper and magazine. Everything I read about myself was damning. I was called a whore and a witch. One headline compared me to Satan. I said, ‘Wait a minute, isn’t Prince running around with fishnets and high heels and lipstick with his butt hanging out?’ Yes, he was. But he was a man.
“This was the first time I truly understood women do not have the same freedom as men,” she said.
Madonna also recalled that at one point in her life, during all the public vitriol, “I remember wishing I had a female peer I could look to for support. Camille Paglia, the famous feminist writer, said I set women back by objectifying myself sexually. So I thought, ‘oh, if you’re a feminist, you don’t have sexuality, you deny it.’ So I said ‘fuck it. I’m a different kind of feminist. I’m a bad feminist.'”
Madonna also looked back on the many pop icons lost during the last decade. “I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around. Michael is gone. Tupac is gone. Prince is gone. Whitney is gone. Amy Winehouse is gone. David Bowie is gone. But I’m still standing. I’m one of the lucky ones and every day I count my blessings.”
Closing out her speech, Madonna offered thanks to her haters and advice to other women in music.
“What I would like to say to all women here today is this: Women have been so oppressed for so long they believe what men have to say about them. They believe they have to back a man to get the job done. And there are some very good men worth backing, but not because they’re men — because they’re worthy. As women, we have to start appreciating our own worth and each other’s worth. Seek out strong women to befriend, to align yourself with, to learn from, to collaborate with, to be inspired by, to support, and enlightened by,” she urged.
“It’s not so much about receiving this award as it is having this opportunity to stand before you and say thank you,” Madonna said, closing out her speech. “Not only to the people who have loved and supported me along the way, you have no idea…you have no idea how much your support means,” she said, tearing up for the second time. “But to the doubters and naysayers and everyone who gave me hell and said I could not, that I would not or I must not — your resistance made me stronger, made me push harder, made me the fighter that I am today. It made me the woman that I am today. So thank you.”
Before the speech, Anderson Cooper introduced Madonna with a heartfelt tribute to her ongoing influence. “Madonna is Billboard’s Woman of the Year, but as far as I’m concerned in terms of music and impact and culture, she’s been the Woman of the Year every year since she released her first single ‘Everybody’ in 1982.”
Hailing her as not only “relevant but revolutionary” up to present day, Cooper noted the importance of Madonna to him “as a gay teenager growing up… Her music and outspokenness showed me as a teenager a way forward. Through her music, she told me and millions of teenagers — gay and straight — that we are not alone. We are connected to each other.”
Following Cooper’s personal tribute, rising British singer-songwriter Labrinth took the stage for a stirring medley of Madonna’s Ray of Light ballad “Frozen” and her immortal “Like A Prayer.” Naturally, a choir was brought onstage to recreate the church-meets-pop anthem ecstasy of “Like a Prayer.”
Prior to Madonna, Shania Twain was honored as this year’s “Icon” at the 2016 Women In Music event. Also honored this year are Halsey (“Rising Star”), Andra Day (“Powerhouse”), Meghan Trainor (“Chart Topper”), Maren Morris (“Breakthrough Star”), Kesha (“Trailblazer”) and Alessia Cara (“Rule Breaker”). Billboard’s Women In Music airs Dec. 12 on Lifetime.
More at Billboard
.@Madonna‘s commandments for being a woman in the music industry are absolutely brutal. #womeninmusic pic.twitter.com/YlP8SfEIin
— Maeve McDermott (@maeve_mcdermott) 9 december 2016
“Michael is gone, Tupac is gone, Whitney is gone, Prince is gone, Amy Winehouse is gone, Bowie is gone…and I’m still standing.” –@Madonna pic.twitter.com/lzMTaAYFqK
— Maeve McDermott (@maeve_mcdermott) 9 december 2016
Madonna was unequivocally #WithHer during the recent presidential election, which might explain why she had politics on her mind when we caught up with her on the red carpet Friday (Dec. 9) at Billboard‘s Women in Music event, where she is being honored as Woman of the Year.
Asked how she felt about the Woman of the Year honor, the pop icon said, “For me… [since] Hillary Clinton lost the election, it’s really important to make a stand and speak my mind about the importance of women and women empowering themselves and believing in themselves and understanding their worth.”
Appearing at Friday’s event presented another opportunity for the singer to address those issues, as well as consider how involved she wants to get in the political arena in the future. “I think I’ve always been political,” she said. “But I think in this particular time, especially I do want to fight for not only human rights, but for women’s rights.”
One thing she’s still on the fence about, though, is potentially running for president. Like Vice President Joe Biden, she gave the question a definitive “maybe” when asked about higher aspirations on the red carpet, saying that decision would rest on “how much abuse” she was willing to take from the press.
If she were to take the plunge, the first thing President Ciccone would do is pay school teachers “a lot more money.” That makes perfect sense, considering that the mother of four noted there is a big difference between Pop Icon Madonna and Mom Madonna. The former is “consumed with herself” and how she looks and whether she’s ready for her show, while Momdonna is the opposite: firmly focused not on herself, but on her family.
(Fast-forward to the 1:03:00 mark to see Madonna’s interview.)
“Woman of the Year” recipient Madonna is one of several 2016 Women in Music honorees. Also honored this year are Shania Twain (“Icon”), Halsey (“Rising Star”), Andra Day (“Powerhouse”), Meghan Trainor (“Chart Topper”), Maren Morris (“Breakthrough Star”), Kesha (“Trailblazer”) and Alessia Cara (“Rule Breaker”). Billboard’s Women In Music airs Dec. 12 on Lifetime.
More at Billboard
Exclusive Footage for Iconic! #rebelhearttour pic.twitter.com/7hebLEMQWo
— RebelHeartQ8 (@RebelHeartQ8) 9 december 2016
Madonna – Rebel Heart Tour – Bitch I’m Madonna, Rebel Heart, Iconic. pic.twitter.com/NxUxP6ot83
— Madonna Stan (@MadonnaCanFkU) 9 december 2016
“DETROIT MADE ME WHAT I AM TODAY” #rebelhearttour #Showtime pic.twitter.com/CBcnP6QOZk
— News-of-Madonna (@newsofM) 9 december 2016
Madonna arrived moments ago on the Red Carpet for Billboards Women In Music Awards, where she will be presented with the Woman Of The Year Award. She answered to the question if she’d even want to run for president that she didn’t know, depended on how much abuse she was willing to take.
Stay tuned for more
#Madonna is still living in a Material World. Watch this exclusive clip from #rebelhearttour, premiering 12/9 9pm ET on #SHOWTIME on Hulu. pic.twitter.com/aUs9r2kyTy
— hulu (@hulu) 9 december 2016
Madonna – Rebel Heart Tour – Bitch I’m Madonna pic.twitter.com/g3ONuoGSCr
— . (@MadonnaCanFkU) 8 december 2016
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement | 1 year | Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category . |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional | 11 months | The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. |
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance | 11 months | This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". |
viewed_cookie_policy | 11 months | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
geo | session | This cookie is used for identifying the geographical location by country of the user. |
sp_landing | 1 day | The sp_landing is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content. |
sp_t | 1 year | The sp_t cookie is set by Spotify to implement audio content from Spotify on the website and also registers information on user interaction related to the audio content. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
_ga | 2 years | The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. |
_ga_EFG7W3DQ07 | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. |
CONSENT | 2 years | YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data. |
vuid | 2 years | Vimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos to the website. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
c | 6 months 2 days | This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services. |
uuid | 1 year 27 days | To optimize ad relevance by collecting visitor data from multiple websites such as what pages have been loaded. |
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | 5 months 27 days | A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. |
YSC | session | YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages. |
yt-remote-connected-devices | never | YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. |
yt-remote-device-id | never | YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. |
yt.innertube::nextId | never | This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. |
yt.innertube::requests | never | This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. |
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
loglevel | never | No description available. |