1991 Madonna

Janet/Madonna feud, MTVE news, 2nd of May 2001


Janet Jackson has revealed the reason for her long standing feud with the queen of pop, Madonna. Jackson admitted to British press, that she had had a problem with Madge since the early 90′s.

She revealed that the feud had stemmed from sly digs Madonna had made about her brother Michael, after an attempted collaboration. Janet admitted, that she didn´t like anyone talking negatively about her family, whoever they were.

Michael Jackson, USA Today, 1 June, 2001


Q: But what about your trademark crotch-grabbing?

A: I started doing that with Bad. Martin Scorsese directed that short film in the subways of New York. I let the music tell me what to do. I remember him saying, “That was a great take! I want you to see it.” So we pushed playback, and I went “Aaaah!” I didn’t realize I was doing that. But then everyone else started doing that, and Madonna, too. But it’s not sexual at all.

Madonna, J Randy’s biography of her, 2001


Madonna was 25 before she released a record. She says this is important to understand. Prince signed to

Warners in his teens. Michael Jackson could see himself as a cartoon on TV as a child. Madonna had 25 years to live without scrutiny, to become an adult in a normal way, and this is why she is different.

“They isolate themselves too much,” she says. “If they would just come outside and mingle with humanity, everything would benefit — their art, and whatever relationships they may have. They’ve made such a big deal about being secretive that now it’s going to be even harder for them, because the more you say, `I’m not going to show you, you can’t see’, the more everybody wants to see. It’s just the way it is.

“I could never say that either of them were friends. I’ve spent a good deal of time with both of them. They’re very different people, but I felt the same with both. I felt like a peasant next to them, like this big clumsy farm girl. Like, when I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it. And they have these manners and they’re just so careful about what they eat and what they say. I had dinner with Prince once, and he was just sipping tea, very daintily. I was stuffing food down my face and I was like, `Aren’t you going to eat?’ ” She mimics a delicate, whispered “no.” And I thought, `Oh my God!’ I have this theory about people who don’t eat. They annoy the fuck out of me. It’s something about being in control.”

[...]

But going back to Prince and Michael Jackson, it’s never too late to start being a human being. If they could just try being something close to that, then that would be the way to … I mean, f**k salvation in the public eye, I’m just talking about being happy in your private life. Just being able to go to a basketball game or for a bike ride. I can’t imagine either of those guys putting on sweat pants and sneakers and going for a run, playing outside with a dog or just being silly and hanging out with your friends without your make-up on. You know what I mean? I don’t think they do that.”

[...]

Madonna was constantly searching for a companion more famous than the past one and that she finally found a man whose popularity surpassed hers: Michael Jackson, the most acclaimed singer of the decade.

They had a date at the Ivy, where they were constantly photographed, which didn’t mind Madonna and Michael one bit. One week later they went Academy awards on march 25 1991.

It mentioned Madonna talking about changing MJ’s look, followed by a quote of her talking about her evenings with him, “I begged him to throw out his sunglasses and he did because I was stronger than him. Then, we exchanged our powder brushes because we both powdwer our noses and we ended it by exchanging bank accounts.”

But if in public Madonna treated Michael Jackson as if he was a weird and didn’t hesitate to wink at reporters who asked questions, it didn’t stop her trying to add his name among her list of celebrity lovers.

She’ll admit to an ex-lover that she tried to seduce him. Nothing happened and he was one of the few men she had been unable to conquer.

Madonna, Q Magazine, April 2003


Look on the bright side, you could be Michael Jackson. “I haven’t seen that documentary [Living With Michael Jackson], but it sounds disgusting, like he [Martin Bashir] exploited a friendship. Publicly humiliating someone for your own gain will only come and haunt you. I can assure you, all these people will be sorry. God’s going to have his revenge.”

Madonna defending Michael over Bashir, Matt Lauer, 2003




Matt: Still friends (with Michael Jackson)?
Madonna: Oh I haven’t talked to him in ages.
Matt: Did you see the documentary?
Madonna: I didn’t, I heard about it. Everybody was talking about it at one point and describing scenes to me, it sounded horrifying. I wouldn’t want to watch it.
Matt: Horrifying in what way?
Madonna: Well, it just sounds so exploitative. So, I don’t know, I don’t like it. I don’t like people humiliating other people like that. It doesn’t seem right and fair.
Matt: You said this, “Publically humiliating someone for your own gain,” which is I think what you feel Martin Bashir did or done -
Madonna: Yes, mhmm.
Matt: “- Will only come back to haunt you. I can assure you all these people will be sorry. God’s going to have his revenge.”
Madonna: Mhmm.

Friend of Michael’s, Ahmad Elatab, New York Post, November 22, 2003
http://www.dadi.org/mjscand7.htm


On the limo ride back, “I asked him about Madonna, seeing Lisa Marie Presley at the house one time, if he was gay, things like that,” the teenager said.

“He was so open, he doesn’t hide anything. He’s a different person when you know him. He said Madonna’s a bitch, and that he divorced Lisa Marie because she wouldn’t have his kids.”

Madonna samples “Can You Feel It” in her song “Sorry,” Oct 22 2005


Believe it or not, Michael Jackson now has Madonna to thank for some extra cash.

The Kabbalah Crier (formerly the Material Mom) has sampled the bass lines from a Jackson-penned song on her new album.

Her tune, “Sorry,” contains a segment from “Can You Feel It?” That’s a song Mikey wrote in 1981 with brother Jackie. It appeared on the Jacksons’ “Triumph” album.

“Can You Feel It?” is credited to the two brothers and published by MiJac Music, Michael’s company. Even though Jackson’s ownership in MiJac is leveraged to the tune of $70 million, he still gets royalties.

And Madonna will have to ante up for use of the sample. There’s talk that “Sorry” will even be a single release from Madonna’s forthcoming “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” which could mean even more dough for Michael.

Of course, he’ll have to split the fees with Jackie, who actually wrote several songs used around the time of the Victory tour, circa 1985.

Ironies abound here, since Michael speaks these days to almost no one in his family, including Jackie.

But even more interesting is that Michael for a long time had a competition going with Madonna in which he would try to top anything she did, according to sources. The fact that she’s now thrown him this bone should feel like a major validation of success to Jackson, I am told.

Observer, November 2005
http://allaboutmadonna.com/madonna-interviews-articles/the-observer-music-monthly-november-2005


Madonna : You can just dance for six hours and nobody will bother you and you don’t have to drink. I felt an incredible sense of liberation, and I felt happier. That sense of freedom and feeling independent. I was used to dancing, but only when someone told you what to do. So in the nightclub I was all over the place, I combined everything. Street dance, modern dance, a bit of jazz and ballet, I was Twyla Tharp, I was Alvin Ailey, I was Michael Jackson. I didn’t care, I was free. There was nothing fun or glamorous about my life and I needed some excitement. And believe me, there were a lot cooler people there than me. They were wearing black and not moving much, and I was giving everyone the retarded tingles.

Madonna on Jo Whiley’s radio show, 14th December 2005


Madonna picked When Doves Cry as her alltime lifechanging track on Radio 1 where she’s currently the guest host with Jo Whiley. She muttered something about not wanting to take her shades off, then spoke about how she first heard Doves listening to her walkman while cycling home to her new NY flat when she ‘was just realising what the world may have in store for her’. They played the full version, a few callers sent emails to say ‘Wow, Madonna’s a Prince fan, it doesn;t get any better’ and ‘That song send chills up my spine. Fantastic choice, Madonna’.

Wiley then asked about her about meeting Prince, she said he was very shy, it took two days to bond, he’s very strange, but called him and Michael Jackson both geniuses. Jo Whiley said in spite of them both being “socially inadequate,” and Madonna laughed.

Life With My Sister, Christopher Ciccone, published 2008


(Freddy Demann (MJ’s ex-manager, who manages Madonna) sent Madonna in a Club Med in Morroco to film a video shot fro a french television.)

In the morning we pile into a bus for the four-hour drive to Ouarzazate in south-central Morocco, in the Shara desert, where we’ll be shooting the video. Lawrence of Arabia and, later Gladiator were shot in Ouarzazarte,but it seems to me a long way to go just to make a short video. Freddy, who has gone ahead by plane, is meeting us there.

…

Once we leave Marrakech and drive toward the Atlas Mountains the landscape change dramtically. No trees, just bare mountains with tiny specks of sheepa climbing around.

After two hours, we realize we are hungry and ask the driver where we can stop and eat. The answer is nowhere. Its Ramadan and Muslims aren’t permitted to eat or drink until sundown. We are about to protest when there is an almight bang.

The bus has broken down. We are on a deserted mountain road. There are no cell phones, no restrooms. Our driver can’t start the bus. He tries radioing for help, but discovers that we are out of range.

So he gets out and starts messing with the engine. By now, its one in the afternoon. We are all hot and sweaty, and it looks as if we’re going to be stuck here for hours.

Madonna has a major meltdown. ”We’re in the middle of the fucking desert. Where the fuck is Freddy? What the fuck are we doing here? I can’t believe he did this to me.”

I can’t stop myself from cracking ”Wonder if Freddy ever sent Michael Jackson through the desert in a bus?” More bitching and screaming.

Her trainer, a touchy feely girl, strokeas her arm”Stay cool, Madonna. Everything is doing fine. Let’s meditate.” She croons.

Madonna slams her hand away. ”Get the fuck away from me, it’s too hot!”
Later two men in a truck picks them up:

Its nighttime and cold now. One of the drivers turns on the radio, and a pop song blares through the speakers.

He smiles at Madonna and says “You heard of Michael Jackson?”

“Just shut up, shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up,” she shrieks. I put my hand over her mouth.

“Madonna, just be quiet. We need them to drive us to destination.”

Madonna’s Introduction to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, March 11, 2008


So then of course, I needed a manager, right? So, I asked myself, “Self, who is the most successful artist in the business today?” and Self answered, and a high, squeaky voice “Michael Jackson.” So, off I went to LA, to find the man who managed Michael Jackson, to make him my manager. Cut to Freddy DeMann, another man I want to thank, the ultimate mac daddy manager slick back hair tan smelling of expensive cologne big desks smoking a cigar, yup, he drove a Porsche. He gave me a ride back to my hotel in that Porsche. By the time we got there, he was my manager. (cheers and laughs) And there was no monkey business, okay. Giggles…. He gave me… I’m just kidding. See he (looking at Justin Timberlake) rubbed off on me. This speech was not meant to have a lot of sexual innuendos somehow. He’s bringing sexyback. Okay? I’ll get you fu*ked! Um, okay, so, we had an amazing 15 years together, and I learned a lot from him, so thank you Freddy DeMann.

Madonna, Associated Press, May 6, 2008


AP: You, Prince and Michael Jackson turn 50 this year. Will you be throwing a big, joint party?

Madonna: If there is, I am not throwing it. I am tired of throwing parties!

AP: Maybe you all could do a Rolling Stone cover together.

Madonna: Really? (smiles) I don’t know. Ask them. I am a little bit tired of being the one who always has to ask everything. You are going to have to go to them.

Madonna’s statement, June 25, 2009


“I can’t stop crying over the sad news,” Madonna says. “I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats, but his music will live on forever! My heart goes out to his three children and other members of his family. God bless.”

The Mirror, 28 June, 2009


In 2006, he came close to moving to Britain – at the suggestion of on-off friend Madonna. The two were linked in the Nineties. Madonna’s biographer said: “Many of the men in her life have been arm-candy. She flirted with Michael Jackson.”

Madonna, PR Inside, July 4th, 2009


Madonna credits her “normal childhood” for not falling victim to superstardom like Michael Jackson – insisting having such a credible career so young was “unearthly”.

The Material Girl superstar told the world of her grief after hearing of the Thriller hitmaker’s death last week, confessing to fans she couldn’t stop crying in the hours following his passing.

The tragic demise of her most famous contemporary came as an extra shock as she was putting plans in motion to make a special appearance at Jackson’s London comeback gigs.

But the star will never have the chance to perform with Jackson – admitting it is a devastating blow as she has always looked up to him.

She tells Britain’s The Sun newspaper, “I am so terribly sad about Michael Jackson’s death. I don’t know what artist wasn’t inspired by him.”

“To be able to do what he did at such an early age was unearthly, everybody grew up in awe of him.”

Madonna looks back on her short-lived friendship with Jackson in the early 90s with fondness – insisting she loved to “pick his brains” about his musical talents.

She explains, “To work with him and become friends and hang out with him, was exciting for me. I used to love picking his brains about musical stuff.”

And Madonna recognises she became a completely different person to Jackson despite similarities in their phenomenal success – blaming his tireless entertaining schedule when he was just a child.

She adds, “Obviously we have very different personalities – he was a lot more shy than I am. That’s because I was allowed to have a normal childhood and he wasn’t, so there was a vulnerable side to him that made you want to take care of him and protect him.”

However, Madonna insists she will always remember both sides of Jackson – admitting the star completely changed when he stepped off stage.

She says, “He was a real paradox, one of the world’s greatest performers and obviously very confident on stage, but in real life he was shy and you really felt for him. ”

Madonna will pay tribute to Jackson with by involving a Jackson lookalike in her Sticky & Sweet tour when it returns to London’s O2 Arena on Saturday.

The Sun, July 4th 2009


Madonna has revealed she was ”in awe” of Michael Jackson, and is devastated by his sudden death last week.

Madonna is “terrible sad” about the death of Michael Jackson.

The ’4 Minutes’ singer is due to play London’s O2 arena tonight (04.07.09) and tomorrow (05.07.09) – the venue where Michael would have staged his comeback shows later this month – and is planning to dedicate her performances to the King of Pop.

She explained: “He was the King who inspired us all. I am so terribly sad about Michael Jackson’s death. I don’t know what artist wasn’t inspired by him. Everybody grew up in awe of him.

“To work with him and become friends and hang out with him, was exciting for me. I used to love picking his brains about musical stuff.”

Michael – who died of a suspected cardiac arrest in Los Angeles last week, aged 50 – appeared alongside his brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon in the Jackson 5 from the age of seven.

Madonna insists it was Michael’s early induction into the world of fame which made him so unusual.

She told Britain’s The Sun newspaper: “To be able to do what he did at such an early age was unearthly.

“Obviously we have very different personalities – he was a lot more shy than I am. That’s because I was allowed to have a normal childhood and he wasn’t, so there was a vulnerable side to him that made you want to take care of him and protect him.

“He was a real paradox, one of the world’s greatest performers and obviously very confident on stage, but in real life he was very shy and you really felt for him.”

Madonna also revealed she had offered to sing with Michael – who is survived by three children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Prince Michael II – at the 50 shows he had planned in London.

She joked: “I don’t know what we could have done together. I could have carried his bags for him maybe.”

Now, the 50-year-old singer has decided to pay tribute to Michael during her upcoming shows.

Madonna Touring Poland, 16 August 2009





During the concert, Madonna also paid tribute to Michael Jackson, who died in June.

A Jackson impersonator did the King of Pop’s signature moonwalk dance move while wearing a sequined jacket, white T-shirt, white glove and white socks, while a large photograph of him as a boy appeared on stage.

“Let’s give it up for one of the greatest artists the world has ever known,” Madonna shouted, and then segued into a performance of her old hit “Holiday.”

2 Setptember, 2009


The Net has been abuzz for a bit that Madonna will make an appearance at the Video Music Awards in New York next weekend. Even though the queen’s rep shot down that possibility to Marc Malkin last week, we hear MTV isn’t ready to give up. So how might they entice Madge to hop onboard the very hyped show this year? By dangling the M.J. card, obviously.

We hear the VMAs are going to have a “big” Michael Jackson component, and execs are dying for Madonna to pay tribute to the King of Pop, because really, who else can?

Sunday Times Culture, 20 September, 2009


The 36 songs on Celebration document the succession of skilfully selected producers and writers —John “Jellybean” Benitez, Steve Bray, Pat Leonard, William Orbit, Mirwais, Stuart Price — Madonna has worked with during her career. Other collaborations — with Prince, with Michael Jackson — either went off like a damp squib or failed entirely. Of the Jackson collaboration, she says: “We spent a chunk of time together, and became friends, but it never happened. I wrote a bunch of words and presented them to him, and he didn’t want to go want to be provocative. And I said, `Well, why come to me?’ I mean, that’s like asking Quentin Tarantino to not put any violence in his films. I felt like he was too inhibited, too shy. Well, I’m shy too. When you’re writing with somebody, you immediately become shy, because, unless you’re already good friends, you can’t be honest and say, ‘That’s the shittest thing I’ve ever heard: You’re afraid to say that you don’t like something because you don’t want to hurt their feelings, or you’re afraid your ideas are shit; and if you reveal those cards, they’re not going to want to work with you.” Surely any musician in the world, I think, would kill to work with her. But of course that’s not the point. Madonna needs to want to work with them. It’s never the other way around.

“The first thing that came into my head,” she continues, referring now to Jackson’s death, “was the word ‘abandoned. I feel like we all abandoned him and put him in a box and labelled him as a strange person. And it used to pain me to see people go write such horrible things about him, accuse him of being a child molester, and all these things that nobody had any proof of — because, you know, I’ve had plenty of things I’ve been accused of. When I adopted David, I was accused of kidnapping him, for God’s sakes; and it’s very hurtful, and people love to jump on bandwagons. The lynch-mob mentality is pretty scary.”

As Madonna said in her tribute to Jackson at last week’s MTV awards, she lost her mother at six, and he lost his childhood. Both engaged in a long search for something to fill those gaps. Madonna is still looking, but alive. Something armoured her on that journey that was missing in Jackson. What advice would she give to her 24-year-old self, about to release her first single and blast into the limelight? “Don’t take it personally,” she answers without a pause.

19 October, 2009


Britney Spears was featured in a video clip during “Human Nature” in your Sticky & Sweet show. She’s stuck in an elevator and starts to go crazy. Is that how you analogize what’s happened in her career?
Yes. Didn’t that explain what I thought? “I’m not your bitch, don’t hang your shit on me.” I just think people should mind their own business and let her grow up. I think everyone goes off the deep end at one time or another, and she, like Michael Jackson, didn’t really have a childhood, so there are some inherent problems in that scenario. I have a lot of compassion for her, and I hope that she can find balance in her life. I don’t know how bad her meltdown was. One can’t believe everything one reads

Madonna, Rolling Stone, October 19th 2009


Do you cry often onstage?
[On the Sticky & Sweet Tour] there’s a moment right before I sing “You Must Love Me,” which is such a sad song, when I’m not linked up to time-coded video, when I take a moment to talk to the audience. On this leg of the tour, I cried when I was making a speech about the two men who worked for the scaffolding company that were building my stage in Marseilles [who died in a collapse]. I cried when I found out Michael Jackson had died.

You and Michael were born in the same month, August of 1958. What was it like to witness a kid your age do what he did?
I was madly in love with him, totally smitten. He was mind-bogglingly talented. The songs he sang were not childlike at all.

When did you first meet him?
I met him in the early Eighties, when I first started working with my manager, Freddy DeMann, who at the time was managing Michael Jackson. I saw him play at Madison Square Garden, and I was blown away. He was flawless. There was a party at the Helmsley Palace Hotel. He was very shy, but it was a thrill for me.

Were you jealous of him?
In a good way. I’d wished I’d written “Billie Jean” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’.” What song didn’t I love?

Ten years later there was talk of you recording together, and you went to the Oscars with him.
There was a period of time when we hung out. He wanted to work with me, I think he wanted to get to know me, and I wanted to do the same. When you write with somebody, it’s a weird experience, you feel vulnerable and shy. When I worked with Justin Timberlake I felt that way. To write songs together is a very intimate experience, like getting tossed into a juggernaut. “On your mark, get set, create!” You have to get past these hurdles, which are, “I want to impress this person, but will they think my ideas are stupid? What if their ideas are stupid? Can I be honest with them? Will they be offended?” You end up talking and gabbing and socializing, and you have to do that in order to get to the next level, to be creative. So that’s what we were doing: watching movies, having dinner, hanging out, going to the Oscars, being silly, seeing if we could work. He got relaxed. He took off his sunglasses, had a glass of wine, I got him to laugh.

You’re the only other entertainer in the world who can relate to enduring that level of scrutiny. Why did it destroy him?
All I have are my opinions, I wasn’t very close to him. It’s good to have a good childhood and a sense of yourself in the world before people start telling you who they think your are. Where you can make mistakes and have a sense of innocence. It gives you a sense of confidence. I don’t think he started off that way. Did he have any sense of himself outside of the world of being adored and famous? It’s hard to survive like that. I think he felt insecure about the attention he got, and had a love-hate relationship with his job. He didn’t seem to have any close friends. And in the last decade, everybody abandoned him, or wrote him off as crazy. People have said so many things about me that aren’t true, and I never once had a second thought that the accusations against him might be true. But he didn’t seem to have a way to deal with that, publicly or privately, and it can destroy you. When he died, everyone was saying what a great genius he was, but it’s important to appreciate things before you lose them. It’s a great tragedy.

On Sofia Boutella of “Hollywood Tonight” auditioining for a role on This Is It, March 11, 2011
http://joevogel.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/exclusive-inside-michael-jacksons-hollywood/


Michael Jackson was so impressed with dancer, Sofia Boutella — star of the late icon’s new music video for “Hollywood Tonight” — he was ready to offer her the opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to dance alongside him on his This Is It concert series at the O2 Arena in London. Unfortunately, she was still under contract for Madonna’s Confessions Tour at the time and couldn’t get out of it. Seeing how disappointed Boutella was, Jackson turned to a couple of his collaborators and said: “I used to date Madonna. I should call her.”