Madonna has defended calling the leak of 13 of her tracks “artistic rape”, insisting she is being “essentially terrorized”.
Last week the unfinished demos from the 56-year-old’s upcoming record Rebel Heart were made public, resulting in her rush releasing six songs on Saturday. After the 13 songs hit the internet Madonna lashed out on Instagram, posting that it was akin to “artistic rape” and “a form of terrorism”. Many were unhappy with her choice of words, particularly after the hostage siege in Sydney, Australia, last week.
“Obviously there is a person, or a group of people behind this that were essentially terrorizing me. I don’t want to sound alarming, but certainly that’s how I felt. It’s one thing if someone comes into your house and steals a painting off your wall: that’s also a violation, but, your work, as an artist, that’s devastating,” the singer told British newspaper The Guardian.
“I’m an artistic person, I’m very expressive. I’m sorry if words alarm people, but that’s what it felt like. It was not a consensual agreement. I did not say ‘hey, here’s my music, and it’s finished.’ It was theft.”
It’s claimed the superstar is concerned her computer and phone may have been hacked for a decade or more. British newspaper The Mirror has suggested Madonna was at one point worried a member of her team may have been working with someone else to make some of her private things public.
“It wasn’t just music,” she added to The Guardian. “Images were coming out that I’d never seen before. It was then I started to think OK, what’s happening? What is the source of the leak? It’s not just one person, or someone sitting next to me in an office, or someone in a recording studio. I’ve had leaks before, a couple of weeks before an album was released, a lot of other artists have too, we all have to deal with that. But to have songs in the earliest demo form, from last March, that’s extremely disturbing to me.”
Although the leak hasn’t stopped the tracks being a success, the six which hit iTunes over the weekend topped the charts in 36 countries, it’s had a profound effect on the artist. She is now carefully thinking about how she will work going forward and believes other stars will need to follow in her footsteps.
On a lighter note, Madonna spoke about how much her children have helped her with Rebel Heart. She is mother to Lourdes, 18 and Rocco, 14, as well as adopted kids David and Mercy.
“I’m certainly not out in nightclubs all the time, but my kids are. My daughter and my son are my A&R people now. They’re constantly playing stuff in the house, in the car, and I’m like, ‘Whos that? Whos that? Who did that?’ They bring me stuff all the time,” she explained.
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