Cher reacts to Madonna playing feud clip on the Celebration Tour: ‘I said a lot worse’
Cher’s past comments about Madonna make an on-screen cameo on the Celebration Tour. (Getty)
Cher has spoken about her relationship with fellow Queen of Pop Madonna, after the “Hung Up” singer included a reference to their historic feud in her new arena shows.
The conflict between the two pop divas was brought to the surface again recently after Madonna featured a short clip of Cher as part of her current, critically-lauded Celebration Tour, which began in London earlier this month.
During one video interlude, the tour features videos of celebrities including Beyoncé and Ariana Grande gushing about how the 65-year-old “Vogue” singer influenced their careers.
One brief clip shows Cher in an interview with Steve Kmetko in 1991, in which she refers to Madonna as “mean”.
During a conversation with the Los Angeles Times about her new Christmas album, Cher was asked whether she was aware that the footage of her calling Madonna “mean” was being used in the tour, to which she responded: “I said a lot worse than that.”
When asked what her “beef” with Madonna is, the 77-year-old “Believe” singer urged: “It’s not a beef. I actually like her. But come on.”
After being pushed by the interviewer about whether she thinks Madonna is still “mean”, Cher expanded by saying “she can be”.
“We buried that hatchet a long time ago because I called her something so much worse, and she forgave me,” she added.
Despite the bad blood in the past, Cher went on to praise Madonna’s trailblazing contribution to pop culture.
“But I give her this: There’s no one like her that had their ear to the ground and knew everything before anybody else”, the star said.
“I mean, she knew what was coming, and she was right on it. I always felt that was her greatest gift — that she could know the trends before any of us.”
While Cher has always been complimentary of Madonna, previously calling her “very talented” and “creative”, she has never minced her words about the “Holiday” star.
In the 1991 interview, she said that “there’s something about [Madonna] that I don’t like,” explaining that she’d had the star and her then-husband Sean Penn over for dinner, and Madonna had been “so rude to everybody”. She also said that Madonna “acts like a spoilt brat”.
Also in 1991, after Terry Wogan used fitness as a subtle way to “drag [Madonna] in” to an interview with Cher, Cher replied: “How about dragging her in by her hair?”
She also said Madonna is “not unbelievably talented” and “she’s not beautiful”.
In more recent years, Cher has a been a little more tongue-in-cheek about her thoughts on the Queen of Pop, saying in 2012 that she celebrated the release of Madonna’s album MDMA by “getting a colonic”.
In 2018, when asked which three celebrities she’d like to duet with, Cher quipped: “Adele, Pink, and not Madonna.”
