Photo: Press
Madonna’s music has been banned from the playlists of Texas radio station HITS 105 “indefinitely” following the singer’s confrontational speech at the Women’s March in Washington on Saturday (January 21).
Speaking alongside Alicia Keys, Janelle Monáe, Dirty Projectors’ Amber Coffman, Amy Schumer, Cher and Scarlett Johansson at the march, Madonna had told the demonstrators “I’m angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House. But I know that this won’t change anything… We cannot fall into despair. As the poet W. H. Auden once wrote on the eve of World War Two, ‘We must love one another or die.’ I choose love.”
Madonna also performed her singles ‘Express Yourself’ and ‘Human Nature’ at the demonstration, part of a global protest against the inauguration of Donald Trump, and said that the new President could “suck a dick”.
“Banning all Madonna songs at HITS 105 is not a matter of politics, it’s a matter of patriotism,” the station told Billboard. “It just feels wrong to us to be playing Madonna songs and paying her royalties when the artist has shown un-American sentiments. If all stations playing Madonna took their lead from us, that would send a powerful economic message to Madonna.”
Former Republican House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich has also called for Madonna to be arrested for her comment about blowing up the White House, which the singer took to Instagram on January 22 to clarify as a metaphor. “I am not a violent person,” she wrote, “I do not promote violence and it’s important people hear and understand my speech in it’s entirety rather than one phrase taken wildly out of context… I spoke in metaphor… I know that acting out of anger doesn’t solve anything. And the only way to change things for the better is to do it with love.”
