Why Did Cher Hate Madonna?
Cher is known for many things, but holding her tongue is not one of them. Early in her career, the Oscar-winning singer and actress was as well known for her quick quips on The Sonny and Cher Show as she was for hits like “I Got You, Babe.” Today, you can buy coffee mugs printed with her saucy words of wisdom. So it’s not shocking that the Moonstruck star got involved in a celebrity feud — and one with another single-named pop diva, at that. But what is a bit surprising about Cher’s feud with Madonna is that, for the most part, it seems to be a feud with only one side.
The drama began in 1991, when interviewer Steve Kmetko asked Cher for her thoughts on Madonna. When Kmetko claimed that Madonna was an innovative rule-breaker, just like Cher, Cher replied “There are lots of things that I respect about [Madonna]. I think that she knows how to work the business like nobody I’ve ever seen before. And there’s something about her that I don’t like. She’s mean. I don’t like that.”
Cher went on to describe having Madonna and her then-husband, Sean Penn, visit her at home. While Cher expected someone with Madonna’s level of success to be magnanimous, instead, “She was so rude to everybody … she acts like a spoiled brat all the time.” Cher then described the “Material Girl” with a word not suitable for print in a family publication.
Later in the year, BBC interviewer Steve Wogan tried to rile Cher up by mentioning Madonna — a task at which he instantly succeeded. After admitting that a previous question was just an excuse to “drag” Madonna into the conversation, Cher quipped, “How about dragging her in by her hair!” While she described their feud as “blown out of proportion,” she didn’t do much in the interview to help the flames die down. In summarizing her previous interview about Madonna, Cher described the “Like a Prayer” singer as “unbelievably creative because she’s not unbelievably talented, she’s not beautiful but she’s rude.”
Nearly two decades passed, and it seemed like perhaps a diva detante had been reached. In 2013, during a Reddit AMA interview, Cher gave the singer some mixed praise, claiming “I never hated [Madonna], I just thought she was a [expletive]. Actually I quite respect her. Actually I think Madge might be one of the most amazing artists I’ve known. I don’t like everything she does, for sure, but she is always riding the crest of the wave. She always saw trends WAY before anyone else and had great videos.”
Madonna and Cher together at the rally for the Women’s March on Washington in 2017. Kevin Mazur/WireImage
But lest it seem like the beef was fully put to rest, in 2018, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Cher named her three ideal duet partners as “Adele, Pink and … not Madonna.”
Perhaps the most fascinating part of this feud is that Madonna, not known to be much a shrinking violet herself, has never directly addressed the feud. She had never addressed it indirectly, either, until her 2023 “Celebration” tour, where she included a clip of Cher calling her “mean” in a video montage about her own musical legacy.
Cher’s response? “I actually like her,” she told The Los Angeles Times. “We buried that hatchet a long time ago because I called her something so much worse [than mean], and she forgave me. But I give her this: There’s no one like her that had their ear to the ground and knew everything before anybody else. I mean, she knew what was coming, and she was right on it. I always felt that was her greatest gift — that she could know the trends before any of us.”
For any other celebrity pairing, we could consider the matter settled. But much like the stars involved, the Cher/Madonna feud is always due for yet another comeback.
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March 2023
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