Do we like Madonna?
Our score: 9 out of 10. Decades of AIDS and LGBTQ+ advocacy, a public stand for trans people, and nothing harmful turned up in her own words or acts.
Madonna came up through the early-1980s New York club scene, the world she goes back to on the new track Danceteria, which name-checks DJ Mark Kamins and Jean-Michel Basquiat. That same scene was hit hard by the AIDS epidemic. Accepting a GLAAD award in 2019, she said it “took out all of my friends”, and that is where her activism started.
The scandals are small beer by pop-star standards. In March 2024 she singled out a seated fan at a Celebration Tour show, asking why they were sitting down, then realised the fan used a wheelchair and apologised with “politically incorrect, sorry about that”. The fan told TMZ she wasn't offended. A separate 2024 federal suit over a late concert start was dismissed after the plaintiffs filed a voluntary dismissal with prejudice.
On the harm check, she's solid. In 2019 she said fighting for marginalised people was a duty she could not turn her back on. In March 2025 she posted that it broke her heart to see the pain of trans people, in response to Trump administration policies. I found no harmful words about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or public health from her, and nothing on climate either way. That's the honest state of the record.
Her most debated moves are about Gaza and the Pope. In August 2025 she asked Pope Leo XIV to go to Gaza and “bring your light to the children before it's too late”, adding that she wasn't taking sides. AP noted that Israel denies children are starving, so where you land depends on whether you read it as a humanitarian plea or a political one. A month later she said she was disappointed by the Pope's message, and a Catholic influencer replied that the world needs conversion.
The recent news is a good-times story. Confessions II is a sequel to her 2005 dance record, made with producer Stuart Price, and The Irish Times called it her most confident record for years. In Amsterdam she opened with “Mother is here and this is gay heaven”. The night was organised by MISTR, a platform offering free PrEP and HIV care, and she and Kylie Minogue performed a new remix of Love Sensation.
The good stuff is real and long-running. GLAAD gave her its Advocate for Change Award in 2019 for her advocacy, and she was talking about AIDS well before it was fashionable. In her speech she described visiting sick friends in hospital and trying to make them feel loved and human. She is still turning up for Pride crowds in her late sixties.