On June 14th, Madonna released her fourteenth studio album Madame X, a Portuguese pop fusion album. In the album, the pop icon tackles a number of social justice issues including gun violence. This major theme of gun control advocacy in Madame X displays itself in songs like “I Rise” where Madonna samples speech that the Parkland Shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez gave at a Fort Lauderdale Anti-Gun rally. However, Madonna’s message became confusing amongst viewers and listeners when the music video for her song “God Control” was released. Following the release of the video, many individuals condemned the video, including the Parkland Shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez who spoke out about the video. In a tweet, the gun violence activist stated, “Madonna’s new video for her song #GodControl was fucked up, it was horrible.”
Though Madonna has not commented on Gonzalez’s tweets, the artist did talk about her intent for the “God Control” video. In a press release the pop artist stated, “I want to draw attention through my platform as an artist to a problem in America that is out of control and is taking the lives of innocent people.” Madonna continued to say, “This crisis can end if our legislators act to change the laws that fail to protect us all.”
In another tweet about the “God Control” video, Gonzalez went on to express her thoughts on the video by stating, “This is NOT the correct way to talk about gun violence, unlike how many fans have been exclaiming — people who have been working in the GVP community know how to talk about gun violence, not most celebrities.”
See all of Emma Gonzalez’s tweets about “God Control” below:
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