Swastika video only latest of Madonna's controversy-courting escapades

A montage video projected during Madonna's stage show combines images of National Front leader Marine Le Pen and a swastika.

/ Youtube

(CBS/AP) Pop singer Madonna is not one to back down from a fight.

France's far-right National Front has been critical of the singer for a video shown at concerts in her latest tour that in contains an image of the party's leader with a swastika on her forehead.

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The party warned that it would take action if the video were shown in France. On Saturday night, the "Material Girl" singer played it at the Stade de France in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

National Front spokesman Alain Vizier said Sunday that the party would file a complaint in French court next week for "insults."

Party leader Marine Le Pen is briefly pictured in the video during a montage in which famous faces or parts of faces morph one into the next. Soon after Le Pen's face flashes up, Madonna's face follows with Hitler's mustache.

Le Pen, who inherited control of the party from her father, Jean-Marie, has tried to shed the National Front's image as racist and anti-Semitic, especially during her recent failed bid for president. But she has maintained a hard line on immigrants, saying France has too many and criticizing many Muslims, in particular, for insufficiently assimilating into French culture.

Meanwhile, anti-racism group SOS Racisme expressed its support for Madonna on Sunday, commending her for her "resolutely anti-racist and feminist discourse."

Madonna is no stranger to controversy. The 53-year-old singer and actress has been courting outrage since she rose to prominence in the 1980s with eyebow-raising songs such as "Like a Virgin." Her "Like A Prayer" music video was denounced by the Pope among others, and her tours were known for racy costumes like a conical bra.

Fans still talk about the way she kissed Britney Spears onstage at the MTV Music Video Awards and the way she "crucified" herself during her "Confessions" tour.

Even recently, she has engaged in an ongoing feud with Lady Gaga and has tried to outrage her critics, even going to far as to drop her drawers and display a thong-clad posterior during her concert in the usually conservative and mostly Muslin nation of Turkey.

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Madonna

[Martha12345]

Just an old skank. Move on.

[linfinster]

What a loser she is!

[IAMANDAMI777]

The swastika (Sanskrit) is an equilateral cross with four arms bent at right angles.

The earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient India as well as Classical Antiquity. Swastikas have also been used in various other ancient civilizations around the world. It remains widely used in Indian religions, specifically in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, primarily as a tantric symbol to evoke shakti or the sacred symbol of auspiciousness. The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit svastika - "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix. The swastika literally means "to be good".
In East Asia, the swastika is a Chinese character, defined by Kangxi Dictionary, published in 1716, as "synonym of myriad, used mostly in Buddhist classic texts"[1], by extension, the word later evolved to represent eternity and Buddhism.
The symbol has a long history in Europe reaching back to antiquity. In modern times, following a brief surge of popularity in Western culture, a swastika was adopted as a symbol of the Nazi Party of Germany in 1920. The Nazis used the swastika as a symbol of the Aryan race. After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, a right-facing and rotated swastika was incorporated into the Nazi party flag, which was made the state flag of Germany during Nazism. Hence, the swastika has become strongly associated with Nazism and related ideologies such as fascism and white supremacism in the Western world and is now largely stigmatized there. Notably, it has been outlawed in Germany and other countries if used as a symbol of Nazism. Many modern political extremists and Neo-Nazi groups such as the Russian National Unity use stylized swastikas or similar symbols.

[siberian99]

this oldster will try anything to stay in the pop race considering her competition

[snheffner]

Madonna ought to be asamed of herself. What they need to do is force her to watch the movies they made in those concentration camps. Then mad to go to atleast three concentration cams to see the hell the poor Jews, Gypsys, handicapped people and other poor souls that sufered in them.

[lesserof2evil]

if you don't like it, don't watch it.