10 worst missteps of Madonna´s carreer

[Boombox90 6,141]

7 minutes ago, Rosita The chihuahua said:

I have one more, but I would be kicked off the forum if I spoke here.

Tell us!

I don’t like the song, Ray of Light, and I could care less what others think about that 🤷🏼‍♂️

[madgefan 10,340]

In my opinion there have been many missteps, but the ones I can highlight right now are (in no particular order):

• Not releasing Into the Groove as an A-side in the US... that could have guaranteed her third #1 in the Billboard chart. 
• Letting her tour promoters schedule back-to-back shows during both Blond Ambition and Madame X as her health was affected severely.
• Associating her name to people like Harvey Weinstein and Terry Richardson. 
• Not putting her whole heart in her comeback album MDNA after 4 frigging years. She wanted to compete with younger acts and failed miserably.
• Publishing SEX along with the Erotica album. The controversial book completely overshadowed the musicality of the record.
• Starring in multiple bad movies and rejecting roles in much better projects.
• Leaving Warner Bros. Records. She sure earned a lot of money with the 360° deal with Live Nation but put her recording career at risk and still hasn't recovered from that. 
• Not taking regular singing lessons especially after touring so consistently during the last 23 years. 
• Being so late in the uploading of her full videography on Youtube. Remember when fan accounts used to have thousands of views compared to her official channels? 
• Accepting Maluma's invitation to perform live on April 30, 2022 at Estadio Atanasio Girardot in Medellín, Colombia. I am sure I wasn't the only one who thought Madonna's future giving live performances on stage was over.

[Rosita The chihuahua 1,772]

55 minutes ago, Boombox90 said:

Tell us!

I don’t like the song, Ray of Light, and I could care less what others think about that 🤷🏼‍♂️

I think Madame X Tour shouldn't have existed. It was classist, leaving a lot of people without financial conditions out, it showed many complications with Madonna's health, it showed something extremely limited for Madonna's size, to me it didn't sound intimate, but rather cheap. I don't like the setlist, nor the versions, I find it all very depressing and I don't know...I really think it's unnecessary.

I love Ray of Light, even though it's the same as the original version lol, if there was a mistake it was that she didn't release the 10 min version of the song, it would have been iconic.

[Rosita The chihuahua 1,772]

40 minutes ago, madgefan said:

 

• Accepting Maluma's invitation to perform live on April 30, 2022 at Estadio Atanasio Girardot in Medellín, Colombia. I am sure I wasn't the only one who thought Madonna's future giving live performances on stage was over.

 

OMG OMG yes yes yes.... 

[bstranger 1,233]

IMO

1.Leaving Warner

2.Guy Oseary 

3.Very long music gap while she was producing and directing W.E (while Gaga, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Kesha, Taylor Swift and others female were raising for a new generation)

4.no promotion for MDNA album and choose 10 songs from a flop album for MDNA tour setlist

5.The Next Best Thing and Swept Away choices after outstanding Evita performance

6.SEX book (it overshadowed Erotica album and then a big backlash)

7.American Life video controversy (for NOTHING!!!)

8.Madame X whole era, especially the tour

9.Refuse her music legacy so many years since she left Warner

10.Ricardo Gomes and her amateur Inzzzzzztagram

[ADONNA 25,181]

2 hours ago, Rosita The chihuahua said:

I love Ray of Light, even though it's the same as the original version lol, if there was a mistake it was that she didn't release the 10 min version of the song, it would have been iconic.

My guess it wasn't very much different from what was released.  What?  You wanted more crazy guitars and beeps beyond what was on this 8 min mix???

 

[BLUE JEAN 19,792]

She had a perfect career 1982 to 2012. Lots of missteps after that.

[BLUE JEAN 19,792]

1 hour ago, Adonna said:

My guess it wasn't very much different from what was released.  What?  You wanted more crazy guitars and beeps beyond what was on this 8 min mix???

 

Yeah I think the 8 minute remix gives us an idea of what it would have been . Love the outro!

[True Blue 84 2,518]

Doing Eurovision was a misstep imo.. 

[Drownedboy 1,922]

I posted it cause to me it was a great reading of course! I find Hilarious that for the writer Evita and ROL are two misteps LOL. Yes, it was 2012, I wonder what he would write in the next decade. 

[shakeyerdix 1,331]

Children books were a particularly ridiculous time...

Censoring AL video was just stupid for queen of provocation

MDNA

[BLUE JEAN 19,792]

The main mistake she’s made I feel is not protecting her legacy. She really should be considered up there with the Gods by all generations right now. I don’t know what they needed to do differently but they clearly had no strategy for this or even thought about it until it was too late. They have been trying to catch up more recently but it’s been a hard slog. Hopefully we see a turnaround over the next 10 years.

[Redha DBL 8,194]

When she cancells her artistic vision because one of her collaborator convince her it's too "controversial". The two examples that comes to mind are the original American Life video and the Black Madonna concept album. Madonna has the power to turn controversy into education. Everytime she has been controversial she has raised general awarness, whether it was about sexuality, religion or racism. I'm certain these are these "forced/against her initial will" steps back that made her turn little by little into more commercial and safe concepts. If people were by her side when she made/wanted to make those concepts, sharing her vision, working with her, and most of all not tonning down her artistic vision, i'm certain she would have released even more substential material. I curse the day someone made her cancel the stunning American Life video for that dull flags video and the day when someone told her to give up her artistic/controversial project album "The black Madonna" for that cheap lollipops "Hard Candy" album... Where would she'd be today if someone told her "You're not rolling on the floor showing your underwear in a wedding dress" cause it's too controversial, or "you're not gonna dance in front of burning crosses and kiss a black saint" cause it's way too controversial... 

[Ayham 6,680]

13 hours ago, Impressive Instant said:

Give Me All Your Luvin and Bitch I'm Madonna being released as singles... I never knew a person (hardcore fan or not) that genuinely love those songs.

It's me, hi, I'm the “hardcore fan or not”, it's me at tea time, everybody agrees… 😌

[Ayham 6,680]

1 hour ago, BLUE JEAN said:

Hopefully we see a turnaround over the next 10 years.

Not gonna happen while she’s alive. 🙃

[Ayham 6,680]

MDNA SKIN 💀

ART FOR FREEDOM 💀

HARD CANDY FITNESS 💀

MATERIAL GIRL COLLECTION 💀💀💀

[Ayham 6,680]

For me the BIGGEST mistake was the fact she didn’t releasing Gang Bang as a single. WHY?!!! 

[Ayham 6,680]

Was listening to MDNA the other day and found out that the production and sound quality is WAY better than Rebel Heart. 

[Celebration 1,532]

Kissing that little bitch Drake was a mistake. He acted like a child and embarrassed her for no reason.

Not realising that in today's world, everything has to happen yesterday. I'm thinking about the looong Frozen thing a couple of years ago.

Material Gworrl and Hung Up with that girl with the annoying voice.

Not releasing Madame X Tour on blu-ray. It WAS available here in Scandinavia at Paramount+, but when that dissolved and changed into SkyShowtime, X disappeared. As far as I know, there is no leal was for us to watch the show today, and that irritates me.
I sure hope Celebration Tour will get more than just LP and overpriced picture discs.

Swept Away. Really? I think it's her worst performance in a movie, and The Next Best Thing is a close runner up.
She's too tense in front of a camera.
Now we all know that she can shine when she has a good director to help her. Desperately Seeking Susan, Dick Tracy, Dangerous Game...

And yes, the horrible Eurovision fiasco. ESC is about glitter, party, GAY, boring ballads sung by cute girls in nice gowns...
Not murdering a pop classic with off key singing and a boring new remix, or inviting a rapper who looked stoned.
Vogue and God Control would have worked much better.

[dude78 95]

My choice:

Non Album-Collabs: Champgne Rose (what was that anyway), Vulgar (why not M using her vocal skills on a tipical Sam Smith ballad instead of this crap - its not even cool for the sake of cheekiness)

Album-Collabs: Revolver, LUV, Bitch im M, ...working with Kanye per se. Meddellin, Bitch im Loca and the other one with Anitta (it interrupts the serious tone of the whole MX album!)

Album Tracks; Incredible, B Day Song, Veni Vidi Vici, Autotune baby + the majority of RH album

Live Stuff: Hung Up as Rock version on SS!! Gambler never performed again since VT (instead of 50times Burning Up) BA not on Blu Ray!! MX Tour not on Blu ray ...who nows if Celebration Tour will have a phisical realease

Videos not made: Nothing fails, Gang Bang, Impressive Instant, Masterpiece

Diverse: The next Best thing!! especially after Evita

 

Edited November 30 by dude78 (see edit history)

[Celebration 1,532]

6 hours ago, True Blue 84 said:

Doing Eurovision was a misstep imo.. 

Yes, and no.

Doing it was a great move. A huge gay icon, at the gayest of events was brilliant.

Unfortunately she didn't understand ESC and gave us a very political and off key performance. Lip synching is okay when your voice hasn't been used for a while.

If she'd chosen to do Vogue and God Control instead, it would have brought the house down, and Madame X would've sold better.

[Rosita The chihuahua 1,772]

8 hours ago, Adonna said:

My guess it wasn't very much different from what was released.  What?  You wanted more crazy guitars and beeps beyond what was on this 8 min mix???

 

Yep, this one....i just LOVE it..... imagine this in 98.... <3

 

[Rosita The chihuahua 1,772]

7 hours ago, BLUE JEAN said:

She had a perfect career 1982 to 2012. Lots of missteps after that.

She started to make them in Hard Candy..... Live Nation..... 

[Rosita The chihuahua 1,772]

2 hours ago, Ayham said:

Was listening to MDNA the other day and found out that the production and sound quality is WAY better than Rebel Heart. 

I think the reason is because they had to rewrite the entire HR after the giant leak

[steady75 10,599]

10 hours ago, bstranger said:

IMO

1.Leaving Warner

 

I came here to post this exactly.

2. Bad surgery. It's 100% her choice ....but with that comes a disconnect.  It's the single thing that moved her from the kind of woman that everybody could sorta relate to even though she was a megastar (unlike Prince and MJ who were god like with obvious talents) Madonna always had that relatability because she had major brains, charm, balls and work ethic and did the most with what god gave her. The first transformative 2008 surgery was where I notice the women I knew in particular disconnect and a strange sense of betrayal in some instances. 

3. Social Media. It's really been an awful exercise in loosing the mystique and is the first time she's really come across as a caricature of herself. Sadly that's all been self inflicted. 

4.  Over long infrequent albums with short campaigns  Her process has seemed so laboured since 2008 and what else have we really got from her instead? In an age where content is king she gives less and less. I cannot believe we have only had three albums since Hard Candy in 2008. That's three album in the best part of 20 years. She really should have been working with so many new writer and producers. Banking on old collaborators for the best part of two decades is fucking wild to me. We should have had albums in 2010 - 2012 - 2015 - 2017 - 2020 - 2022 - 2024. Instead we've had less than half of that and a few good money for old rope compilations. Most of the work that brings to us is written and compiled by producers and other songwriters and she tweaks and curates and adds her spin and some lyrics etc. I think as time has gone on and the process has been revealed this has become even more apparent even in her biggest eras like Ray Of Light and Like A Prayer. She is the magic ingredient but someone else has already been to the shop, bought and made the pie and she adds to the recipe and decides the serving dish in more cases than we thought. I'd have loved a decade where we saw more experimentation rather than putting her eggs in three unsuccessful bloated album projects. 

5. Relevant by association: The tying yourself to younger stars thing is absolutely fine but Madonnas insistence to discount pretty much everyone her own age or anyone over the age of 25 is wild to me, makes her look older and twinned with her obsession to appear young undermines her wisdom and actually a lot of what she stood for. It's always irked me and I think it's also what made a lot of her original fanbase steer away from her. The Kim Kardashian thing is still wild to me. Younger men too. This is also fine but it also lays into the fact that she doesn't want to be questioned or challenged by her contemporaries and is only obsessed with youth. It plays into much of what I have said above. It's also clear she fetishes young black / latin men which I have no problem with but the optics are a little problematic socially.

 

6. Cringe Inducing P.A's : Not reading the room: Either where she tries to make it about her or misses the tone. Aretha Franklin Tribute, Grammy appearance, VMA's 2021, Eurovision, Maluma concert, Prince Tribute to some degree. I suppose the Brits too but not her fault. "come on Pharrel get up" etc. It's so try hard and it used to be effortless.

7. Losing her sense of humour. She used to be so funny and she's just....not anymore. She seems to take herself so seriously and she used to just brush things off and make me howl.  Her skits are infantile. 

8. Lack of Interviews: Her press and print interviews were a huge part of the Madonna magic for me. Watching her interact and spitball and give us her views on things. The way she would win the interviewer over. Magical. since MDNA it seems she's very keen to name drop or appear aloof or above things. Like it's an inconvenience being there or that. There's one decent interview with a young bloke around Rebel Heart where she seems pretty good. I can't think of a good press interview for eons. The Graham Norton, Jonathan Ross ones were bad. I suppose the last iconic thing she said was "look it up" and fuck all since. 

9. Legacy: This is two fold. The constant self referencing in material from the last 17 years from Hard Candy and Celebration song through MDNA, Rebel Heart and Madame X and not actually doing anything in terms of releasing expanded editions in the huge gaps between projects in that time. . A lot of Madonna fans are dead.

10. Yes men: I think most of the above folds into a general disconnect with real life. Her circles have frightened me at times. Pictures on her insta pot a room full of highly amended faces and a weird in club of odd balls. creepy.