Madonna released the most powerful track and video so far from her upcoming 14th studio album Madame X. “Dark Ballet” muses hauntingly about oppression, discrimination, race and religious persecution.
Directed by Emmanuel Adjei, the clip stars Mykki Blanco as Joan of Arc. Blanco offers a quote at the end: “I have walked this earth, Black, Queer and HIV positive, but no transgression against me has been as powerful as the hope I hold within.”
Said Madonna of the clip: She fought the English and she won, still the French were not happy. Still they judged her. They said she was a man, they said she was a lesbian, they said she was a witch, and, in the end, they burned her at the stake, and she feared nothing. I admire that.”
The video dropped after Madonna attacked the New York Times for a magazine cover story on her, as well as its author Vanessa Grigoriadis.
Wrote the singer on Instagram: “Madame ❌ on the cover of N.Y.T. Magazine photographed by my dear friend @jr……….Also sharing my fav photo that never made it in, along with pre-shoot chat and a celebratory glass of wine 🍷 after many hours of work! To say that I was disappointed in the article would be an understatement-
It seems. You cant fix society
And its endless need to diminish,
Disparage or degrade that which they know is good. Especially strong independent women. The journalist who wrote this article spent days and hours and months with me and was invited into a world which many people dont get to see, but chose to focus on trivial and superficial matters such as the ethnicity of my stand in or the fabric of my curtains and never ending comments about my age which would never have been mentioned had I been a MAN! Women have a really hard time being the champions of other women even if. they are posing as intellectual feminists.
Im sorry i spent 5 minutes with her. It makes me feel raped. And yes I’m allowed to use that analogy having been raped at the age of 19. Further proof that the venerable N.Y.T. Is one of the founding fathers of the Patriarchy. And I say—-DEATH TO THE PATRIARCHY woven deep into the fabric of Society. I will never stop fighting to eradicate it. 💔”
