Here are two divas that just cannot learn to play nice.
Elton John and Madonna have famously feuded for several years, the root of their public standoff stemming back to 2004. While Madonna typically remains mum on their disagreements, John is rarely one to bite his tongue.
Most recently, John made headlines for calling Madge a “fairground stripper,” among other insults. Below, find five of the best zingers from the feuding pop icons.
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1. John instigated the famous battle during the 2004 Q Awards. While accepting the award for classic songwriter, he said: “Madonna, best live act? F— off. Since when has lip-syncing been live? Sorry about that, but I think everyone who lip-syncs on stage in public when you pay like 75 quid to see them should be shot. Thank you very much. That’s me off her Christmas card list, but do I give a toss? No.”
2. John’s husband David Furnish got involved after Madonna took home the Golden Globe for best original song in 2012, beating John. “Madonna winning Best Original Song truly shows how these awards have nothing to do with merit. Her acceptance speech was embarrassing in its narcissism,” Furnish wrote at the time, though he later backtracked on his statements.
3. Fielding questions about John backstage at the Globes, the Material Girl said, “I hope he speaks to me for the next couple of years. He’s known to get mad at me…He’ll win another award. I don’t feel bad.” Not exactly fighting words, considering John told NBC host Carson Daly that Madonna didn’t “stand a f—ing chance” for the award earlier on the red carpet.
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4. Prior to Madonna’s Super Bowl gig earlier this year, John offered some unsolicited advice via Good Morning America: “Make sure you lip-sync good.”
5. “Her tour is a disaster and it couldn’t happen to a bigger c—,” John told Australia’s Channel 7 program Sunday Night earlier this week. “If Madonna had any common sense, she would have made a record like Ray of Light, stayed away from the dance stuff and just been a great pop singer and made great pop records, which she does brilliantly. But no, she had to prove that she was like …,” he continued, not specifying. “And she looks like a f—ing fairground stripper.”
Bonus: Lady Gaga gets in the mix
Gaga has also been known to get into a few spats with the queen of pop, obviously siding with John (she is, after all, godmother to his young son). After Madonna called Gaga’s hit “Born This Way” “reductive” and performed a mashup of the song with her own “Express Yourself” during a recent concert, Gaga fired back during a performance of her own.
“Things are really different now than they were 25 years ago and that’s what makes ‘Born This Way’ so relevant for me, is that I really want you all to notice this tremendous place that we’re in right now,” she added. “We’re just socially in a completely different place and it’s OK, we don’t all have to slice and hate each other anymore.”
Gaga also declared that her fans didn’t want her to be “shady or c—y, the way we all used to be.”
For his part, John told Sunday Night that Madge has “been so horrible to Gaga.”
Will there ever be peace between the two dueling divas? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
Email: Sophie.Schillaci@thr.com; Twitter: @SophieSchillaci
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