Madonna Surprises VMAs With Michael Jackson Tribute

September 13th, 2009 by Rolling Stone Leave a reply »

Photo: Polk/Getty

What was billed as a special tribute to Michael Jackson starring his sister, Janet, turned into an even more epic performance: Madonna took the stage at tonight’s MTV Video Music Awards to honor an artist she has called “one of the greats.”

In a long, heartfelt speech about her personal relationship to Jackson, Madonna called the King of Pop “a hero,” and reflected on how his early stardom led him to forever search for his childhood. Recalling the moment she learned that he had died, Madonna said, “All I could think about in that moment was I had abandoned him. That we had abandoned him. That we had let this magnificent creature who had once set the world on fire slip through the cracks. Most of us had turned our backs on him. … There will never be anyone like him again. He was a king.”

Madonna added, “There’s a whole lot of crotch-grabbing and Moonwalking going on in my house,” revealing her two songs are huge MJ fans. She ended with a statement that roused the crowd into a standing ovation: “Long live the King!” (Read Madonna’s full speech here.)

Though she didn’t dance tonight, Madonna has always been at home in the VMAs’ spotlight. She set the bar high at the show’s inaugural event in 1984, writhing around in a sexified wedding gown to “Like a Virgin” in a performance that had the crowd literally gasping in shock, her longtime publicist Liz Rosenberg recalled to Rolling Stone. “Madonna took it so much further than anyone knew she was capable of,” Rosenberg said. “Some people thought she was the greatest thing ever, and other people thou...

Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily

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