Fans are calling it “Literally the modern day Treaty of Versailles” but yes, hell has indeed frozen over and two of pop’s frostiest stars have – it seems – finally stopped sniping at each other.
That’s the shock news coming from the Madonna camp as she shared details of what happened when the pair finally came face to face backstage following John's weekend appearance (alongside Brandi Carlile) on Saturday Night Live.
Always one to speak his mind, John first went on the record with his Madonna beef when he plunged his acerbic dagger into the prolific hitmaker in 2002, describing her James Bond theme for Die Another Day, as “the worst Bond tune ever”.
But worse was to come at 2004’s Q Awards when, on stage to collect his award for Classic Songwriter that year, he couldn’t help drawing attention to Madonna’s appearance on the short list for Best Live Act at the same ceremony.
“Since when has lip-syncing been live?” he asked the assembled throng. “Sorry about that, but I think everyone who lip-syncs on stage in public, when you pay like 75 quid to see them, should be shot. Thank you very much.”
John was, of course, at that point a seasoned live performer himself, and one who despite ‘retiring’ following the final gig of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in July 2023, has recently been appearing back on stage again to promote his current Brandi Carlisle collab.
It seems that – having toured since his first world jaunt in 1970 – John took exception to Madonna’s energetic, dance and performance-based stage shows, which, following her notoriously breathless Blonde Ambition tour of the 1990s and leading to 2004’s ReInvention World Tour, had increasingly come under scrutiny regarding the amount of live vocal work being employed. Claims that Madonna has always strenuously denied.
Following John’s 2004 on-stage critique, Madonna’s firm went as far as to issue a statement to scotch such speculation. “Madonna does not lip-sync nor does she spend her time trashing other artists,” they said.
However the denial wasn’t sufficient to sate John’s interest in Madonna’s vocal chops as, in 2012 as she prepared for her Super Bowl halftime show, he suggested in an interview she should “make sure you lip-sync good” before asserting that: “If Madonna had any common sense, she would have made a record like Ray of Light, stayed away from the dance stuff and just been a great pop singer and made great pop records, which she does brilliantly. But no… And she looks like a f*****g fairground stripper.”
Madonna was to subsequently dedicate a performance of her Golden Globe-winning song Masterpiece to John later that year (after her song beat his own Hello Hello), saying “I forgive him.”
Can you feel the love tonight?
And now, it seems that the love flows both ways and Madonna wants the world to know, sharing a picture of the pair in a clinch.
“We finally buried the hatchet!!!” gushed Madonna in a touching post. “Over the decades it hurt me to know that someone I admired so much shared his dislike of me publicly as an artist.
"I didn’t understand it. I was told Elton John was the musical guest on SNL and I decided to go. I needed to go backstage and confront him . When I met him, the first thing out of his mouth was, “Forgive Me” and the wall between us fell down.”
And that’s not all. It looks like the unlikely duo could even be working together soon.
“He told me had written a song for me and he wanted to collaborate. It was like everything came full circle!!”
Sorry seems to be the hardest word
And it seems that that's not the only making up that John has been doing recently.
During a recent interview on US chat show, Sherri, Patti LaBelle recounted a story where John apparently ‘stole’ the R’n’B and soul legend's Tupperware…
Turns out that after she’d provided food for her backing band – including a young Reginald Dwight at the time – the up-and-coming session pianist had helped himself to the container in which it was delivered…
“My Tupperware is very important to me – I don’t give it out,” raged LaBelle. "They never paid me back. And I said to Elton, ‘I want my darn Tupperware!'”
Again, Elton may have been backward in coming forwards but did make it up to LaBelle – once again – decades later, by gifting her one of his on-stage rings following a performance together in 2005.
“When we finished, I said, ‘Elton, there’s your ring’,” LaBelle explained, as the star had left it behind. “He said, ‘That’s your Tupperware’.”
He may have kept the popular food storage medium, “But the ring is beautiful – I got that ring," boasted LaBelle.
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