Madonna’s Husband Directed 1 of Her Most Violent Music Videos
One of Madonna‘s husbands directed a controversial music video for her. The violent clip was only played on MTV during certain hours. Arguably, the lyrics of the song in question were a lot more provocative than anything that happened in the video.
Madonna’s husband directed a music video about horrific road rage
Madonna was married to film director Guy Ritchie, known for films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and the live-action version of Disney’s Aladdin. His films are often violent. It was almost inevitable that Ritchie and Madonna would make a music video together and that it would be provocative.
During a 2002 interview with CNN, Madonna discussed working with her husband. “For a song called ‘What It Feels Like for a Girl,’ and I loved working with him on that,” the “La Isla Bonita” singer said. “And that we did a five minute commercial for BMW for the internet, and we really enjoyed working together.” The music video for “What It Feels Like for a Girl” depicts the Material Girl going on a violent road rampage with a grandma in tow.
The Queen of Pop discussed her feelings about working with Ritchie. “We kind of tossed the idea around of working together, but nothing specific,” she said. “It was, you know, we’d like to work together on something if it comes along there’s or you know, but Guy has a tendency to, you know, to do very male laddish guy-oriented films so I always thought it would be some kind of quirky character in one of his films. You know what I mean?”
‘What It Feels Like for a Girl’ was 1 of 4 music videos MTV had issues with
Madonna is one of the edgiest pop stars of all time, so of course the video sparked outrage. According to Billboard, the clip was only played on MTV late at night. Madonna’s videos for her previous singles “Like a Prayer,” “Justify My Love,” and “Erotica” were all banned from the network or played only during the night.
Was the MTV’s reaction to “What It Feels Like for a Girl” justified? There’s nothing in it more provocative than the average Hollywood action movie. In fact, it’s a lot less gory than many of those films. The song “What It Feels Like for a Girl” includes some musings about gender roles that are common today but that would have been inflammatory back when the song came out in 2000. Perhaps the marriage of the song and the music video was really what the network found so objectionable.
What Madonna thought about working with her husband
While “What It Feels Like for a Girl” proved predictably controversial, the “Like a Virgin” singer had no issue working with her husband. “It was surprisingly easy I have to say because, I mean, we have a shorthand with each other in terms of communication so he didn’t have to beat around the bush and say, ‘Oh, can you, you know,'” she told CNN. “He’d just say, you know, ‘Wife, over there.’ You know, ‘Over there.'”
“What It Feels Like for a Girl” depicts some horrid road rage but the shooting of the video was a smooth ride.
