A resurfaced video of Madonna celebrating Janet Jackson after she was goaded into mocking her has gone viral.
In the clip, MTV's Kurt Loder is invited behind the scenes of Madonna's then-upcoming album, Ray of Light. Filmed in 1997, Loder asks Madonna about Jackson's new album The Velvet Rope.
The album photos raised eyebrows at the time because they displayed an edgier version of Jackson, including her nipple piercing visible through a latex suit and her hands tied up in bondage gear.
"Have you heard the Janet Jackson record by any chance?" Loder asks at first, to which Madonna responds, "There's a new single, the Joni Mitchell thing?"
"The whole album—there's all these photos from the Sex book phase," he tells a confused Madonna, referring to her 1992 coffee table book featuring nude images of herself and others.
"Of me?" Madonna asks before Loder clarifies he meant Jackson's album's racy artwork, to which the singer shares her thoughts: "That's good."
"I mean they're so five years ago... but you probably won't be hearing that record anyway," Loder continues, seemingly in hopes of getting a reaction from the "Material Girl."
But Madonna refuses to bite, saying, "no, I certainly will, once I get a chance," and the MTV reporter is left hanging.
Posted to TikTok by the account queenofpopmusic, the interview snippet has gone viral.
The TikToker captioned the post: "When a shady journalist tries to bate Madonna into saying negative things about Janet Jackson she doesn't fall for it [sic]."
Many fans agreed in the comments section and praised Madonna for refusing to bad mouth Jackson.
"You can never trip Madonna up. She's a queen," wrote one person.
Another added: "Madonna is a pro at this. She never takes the bait."
And a third wrote: "She is rarely outwardly shady herself, she's quite diplomatic actually and that's why I love her so much."
The 1997 interview was not the only time Madonna publicly supported Jackson—she spoke out after the latter was widely condemned following her Super Bowl performance in 2004.
The halftime show that year featured P. Diddy, Kid Rock, Jessica Simpson, Nelly, and Jackson performing with Justin Timberlake.
After singing her hit "Rhythm Nation," Timberlake joined her to perform his song, "Rock Your Body." He tore away at Jackson's costume, revealing her breast in a shocking moment, leading to the coinage of the term "wardrobe malfunction." The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and NFL were furious, and while Timberlake apologized a week later at the Grammys, Jackson refused to and her career suffered greatly as a result.
Madonna threw her support behind Jackson.
"If they're going to worry about children and what children should and shouldn't see, then I think they should address all issues on TV. I think there's a lot of violence on television as well and there's a lot of hypocrisy about beating up on Janet Jackson and not a lot of the other things children have access to," Madonna told CNN on the red carpet at the 2004 Grammy Awards.
Madonna herself is no stranger to Super Bowl controversy. For her 2012 headline performance, she invited Nicki Minaj and M.I.A to perform with her.
During their performance, M.I.A quickly flipped her middle finger to the camera, bringing the wrath of the NFL on her and a $16 million lawsuit. They later settled out of court in 2014 for an unknown amount.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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