queen of pop

Madonna falls on stage, but FINALLY gets vindication for the biggest diss in pop music history

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Madonna in a cowboy hat on stage

Over the weekend, the world learned on multiple fronts how you cannot keep the Queen of Pop down, no matter how hard some may try.

While Madonna literally wound up flat on her back after falling on stage in the midst of her Celebration Tour on Sunday (more on that in a minute), the pop icon finally got vindication for not being invited to a seminal moment in pop history.

On January 28, 1985, more than 40 of the most famous singers in the world united under one roof to record the blockbuster charity single “We Are the World” following the live taping of the American Music Awards in Los Angeles.

The star-studded lineup featured music legends like Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson, Dionne Warwick, Kenny Rogers, Paul Simon and Cyndi Lauper, among others.

For decades, fans of a certain age have always wondered why Madonna – whose iconic single “Like a Virgin” was the number 1 song in the country that week and was at the AMAs that evening – was curiously absent from the superstar recording which benefitted famine relief in Africa and also featured celebrities like Dan Aykroyd, Bette Midler and LaToya Jackson.

On Friday, Lionel Richie, who co-wrote “We Are the World,” was confronted with the decision to exclude the biggest female pop star in the world from the track during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“At the beginning you guys talk about Cyndi Lauper and Madonna,” Kimmel said referencing Richie’s new Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, which documents the recording of the single.

“We know Cyndi Lauper was in this thing. It was like, who should we invite Cyndi Lauper or Madonna?” the host continued, before asking the question everyone has been wondering since the documentary premiered in January. “Why did it have to be Cyndi Lauper or Madonna?”

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The display showed the response of music artists to the arrival of AIDS in the 1980s.

“It’s probably one of the most interesting questions in the world because we had only a half a line to sing. Let me say this now, a half a line. So we had to have voices that people knew right away. And so, for whatever reason, and by the way, we didn’t know whether Cyndi was coming,” Richie said. “The point was, you have to have an identifiable voice, for whatever reason it was just, Cyndi had that.”

But Kimmel pressed further on why two female pop singers were pitted against each other.

“But you couldn’t have both of them? You guys made a mistake,” Kimmel said.

Richie appeared a bit shocked but couldn’t help but reaffirm Kimmel’s statement.

“I’m gonna say this now on national and international television — you’re right,” Richie said. “We made a mistake.”

It’s not an apology, but it’s a beginning.

Two days after Richie’s admission of regret, Madonna laughed off a public stumble after falling off a chair at the Seattle stop of her Celebration Tour on Sunday.

While singing her 1986 hit “Open Your Heart,” the 65-year-old diva straddled a chair and got dragged by a dancer across the stage. However, the dancer suddenly lost their footing, slipped and took Madonna down with them. Not again!

But fear not, Madonna handled it like a pro and never stopped singing as she continued with the number only stopping to let out a laugh.

The Queen of Pop always lands back on her feet!

Madonna has not commented on the stumble, but she did share an Instagram Story expressing her delight with the performance in general.

“Thank You Seattle,” she wrote on an image of her singing on stage. “It was a heavenly experience!”

Madonna
credit: Instagram (@madonna)

While the Celebration Tour was initially delayed following her hospitalization for a bacterial infection in June, Madonna successfully kicked it off in Europe in October. It arrived to the US in December and will continue traversing the country through April, before heading to Mexico.

Meanwhile, Madonna’s new music continues to set new standards as her collab with The Weeknd and Playboi Carti, “Popular,” has now spent 30 weeks on the single charts in the UK, becoming the second-longest-charting hit of her career in the country, per Forbes.

The trio dropped the song’s music video on Friday, nine months after it was initially released.

The Queen will outrun us all, kids!

While you’re here, head over to the Queerties Awards, where you can vote for Madonna and Sam Smith for Anthem, and other LGBTQ+ favorites in more than 24 categories —once a day between now and February 22.

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