Madonna reduced Aretha Franklin’s legacy to a footnote at the MTV VMAs – that's peak white privilege

The Queen of Pop was given a platform to talk about the Queen of Soul and did a disservice to her

Madonna’s tribute to the late Aretha Franklin at the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) was not about Franklin. Rather, it was about Madonna.

Rather than paying respectful homage to Franklin’s impressive life and incomparable legacy, the oft-described Queen of Pop told a series of personal anecdotes relating to her own journey of becoming a world-famous star. Sitting through quotes such as “I said, 'bitch, I’m Madonna'”, the audience were expected to eat it up as a touching tribute to the formative effect that Franklin’s music had on Madonna’s own career.

She began with the line: “Aretha Louise Franklin changed the course of my life." It was delivered with feeling, with an air of confidence that indicated the direction that the tribute was headed in.

Anybody who tuned in will have heard the largely irrelevant tale of how one of Franklin’s songs propelled Madonna to stardom, having chosen to sing “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” during an audition. As out of place as this story is in any kind of tribute to a legendary musician, it does succeed in showcasing yet another example of white privilege. Madonna continued: “I could see that they didn't take me seriously, and why should they? Some skinny-ass white girl is going to come up here and belt out a song by one of the greatest soul singers who ever lived?”

By pointing out her own whiteness, it seems Madonna attempted to reassure audiences that she knew her place as a dedicated fan. But if that had really been considered, would Madonna have rambled on about herself and her own life for minutes on end instead of talking about Franklin?

Would she have found it appropriate to give a tribute at all, as opposed to giving that platform to a black artist with more insight into the weight of Franklin’s legacy than she had? So often we see this kind of erasure – white artists allowed to bask in the glory of what black artists have created. In fact, we saw it with the 2016 tribute to Prince, also given by Madonna while donning a purple suit.

White privilege is knowing that something isn’t about you, but using a platform to make it about you anyway. It’s standing on stage at the VMAs with your hair in braids, wearing traditional African clothes that come off as a costume, wearing bangles with the pan-African colours – red, green and yellow – and not considering for a second that any of it is inappropriate.

“She led me to where I am today,” Madonna said in her speech. Every so often, the camera cut to the audience, where celebrities such as Camila Cabello and Jennifer Lopez were shown nodding along and clapping.

The obvious inspiration that Franklin had on so many lives is not disputed or even something that should have been left out from Madonna’s tribute. Instead, it should have been the underlying message, while stories of Franklin’s own life and decades-long career should have come first. The achievements of Franklin, a black soul artist who had performed since her young teens from the 1950s up until just last year, should not have been replaced by stories of another person’s life. Franklin was deserving of her own fully-formed tribute at the VMAs.

Ultimately, Madonna’s speech-cum-celebration-of-self that took place at MTV’s award ceremony is disappointing but not surprising. Franklin was but a footnote in the story of Madonna’s life, a means to an end, as she proved in an incredibly ill-advised attempt at honouring an artist so intrinsically important to innumerable black people and people of colour around the world.

The Queen of Pop was given a platform to talk about the Queen of Soul, and did a disservice to her. It was a story about a back woman’s songs helping a white woman to achieve her dreams. Travis Scott was the only other artist to mention Franklin at the VMAs. “Rest in peace, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin,” is all he said. He, as many pointed out on social media, did a much better job.

Going forward, we can only hope that more thought goes into public tributes like these. Aretha Franklin deserved so much better.