Madonna finally breaks her silence on M.I.A.’s crude middle finger gesture during their and Nicki Minaj’s much-hyped NFL’s XLVI Super Bowl halftime performance last weekend.
Madge phoned into “On Air With Ryan Seacrest” radio show where undoubtedly the Monday morning headliner was brought up.
“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 one of the those things, 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,” the ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’ singer said.
“I didn’t know about it until I left. I was really surprised. I didn’t know anything about it,” she said. I found out in the elevator on the way out of the venue.”
Madonna may have found out later, but fans in the stadium and at home got a chance to see the act in real time because NBC’s system was too late to obscure the rapper’s botched motion. However, sources are coming to M.I.A.’s defense suggesting the gesture wasn’t done in disrespect, but because the rapper was nervous about performing before so many people.
“She wasn’t thinking. She was caught in the moment and she’s incredibly sorry.”
While Madonna shared M.I.A.’s nervous sentiments as she too “was overwhelmed…and almost started crying…feeling an incredible sense … of warmth, love and support to see an entire stadium light up like candles…,”but she felt pulling the middle finger during such an exhilarating moment “was out of place”.
No word yet if M.I.A. will be expected to come out-of-pocket for the finger gesture, but NBC has made it clear that they would pass the fine to the rapper if the network is indeed fined. Now that Madonna has spoken about the incident, do you think M.I.A. should speak too? Or should she just keep it moving?
