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Madonna says manager told her ‘career was over’ after onstage wardrobe malfunction

‘Those were the days when you shouldn’t show your butt to have a career,’ pop star said

Inga Parkel
Thursday 11 August 2022 16:24 BST
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Madonna talks about her MTV Awards wardrobe malfunction

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Madonna reflected on a wardrobe malfunction early in her career that led her manager to say her “career was over”.

The 63-year-old music icon said the moment happened at the very first 1984 MTV Awards, where she performed her hit single “Like A Virgin”.

“I walked down these very steep stairs of a wedding cake, and I got to the bottom, and I started dancing around, and my white stiletto shoes fell off,” Madonna remembered on a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“And I was trying to do like this smooth move like dive for the shoe and make it look like it was choreography and my dressed flipped up, and my butt was showing. Can you imagine?

“Those were the days when you shouldn’t show your butt to have a career,” she quipped. “Now it’s the opposite.”

“It happened by accident, and I didn’t even know my butt was showing. And it wasn’t even like the whole butt. It was just like a butt cheek, like half of a butt cheek,” she added.

“But when I went backstage, my manager told me my career was over with.”

Madonna
Madonna (Getty Images for MTV/ViacomCBS)

After going solo in 1981, Madonna became an instant sensation in a male-dominated industry. She went on to be recognised as the best-selling female artist of all time, with over 300 million records sold worldwide.

Maddona is currently in the process of directing her own forthcoming biopic, so that “misogynistic men” can’t.

A release date has not yet been confirmed, but Inventing Anna star Julia Garner has reportedly been cast to play the Queen of Pop.

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