Madonna was asked by MTV to present the Video of the Year award to miss Camila Cabello for her "Havana" visuals. Being as the award show took place just days after the passing of Aretha Franklin, Madonna was also asked to share some words about the Queen of Soul and how her career was positively impacted. Unfortunately, her speech on Aretha was heavily criticised since most viewers thought it was a selfish speech, only detailing her own story.
"Iām so lost. I thought Madonna was supposed to be paying homage to Aretha but I all heard was her paying homage to herself. HEAVY on the Mayonnaise," Charlamagne Tha God tweeted, echoing the thoughts of many Twitter users.
The "Like A Prayer" singer clearly got word of what people thought of her 'tribute' and has followed up with a statement on Instagram.
"I'm with the Winner!! The beautiful @camila_cabello ! So proud of her! ššš," Madonna captioned a photo of her and Camila. "And just to clarify: I was asked to present video of the year by MTV! And then they asked me to share any anecdotes I had in my career connected to Aretha Franklin! I shared a part of my journey and thanked Aretha for inspiring me along the way. I did not intend to do a tribute to her! That would be impossible in 2 minutes with all the noise and tinsel of an award show. I could never do her justice in this context or environment."
Read the post in full below and tell us your thoughts in the comments.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmv1ypbgp9y
