Madonna defended remarks she made as a surprise guest at the Women's March on Washington, when she said that she "thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House," today. The singer said that her comment was a metaphor and was taken out of context.
The march, which was largely billed as a demonstration in support of women's rights and civil rights, but for many has clear political undertones connected to the inauguration of Donald Trump, drew an estimated 500,000 people to the nations capital.
Madonna, 58, took to Instagram today to defend her comments, which included the lines: "Yes, I'm angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House, but I know that this won't change anything. We cannot fall into despair."
More than 1 Million Rally at Women's Marches in US and Around World 10 Empowering Quotes from Women's March on Washington Kellyanne Conway 'Didn't See The Point' to Women’s March on Washington"Yesterday's Rally. was an amazing and beautiful experience. I came and performed 'Express Yourself' and thats exactly what i did," Madonna started in a lengthy caption. "However I want to clarify some very important things.
"I am not a violent person, I do not promote violence and it's important people hear and understand my speech in it's entirety rather than one phrase taken wildly out of context," she continued.
"My speech began with 'I want to start a revolution of love.' I then go on to take this opportunity to encourage women and all marginalized people to not fall into despair but rather to come together and use it as a starting point for unity and to create positive change in the world," she said.
"I spoke in metaphor and I shared two ways of looking at things -- one was to be hopeful, and one was to feel anger and outrage, which I have personally felt," Madonna added. "However, I know that acting out of anger doesn't solve anything. And the only way to change things for the better is to do it with love."
The singer ended her statement with saying that it was "an honor to be part of an audience chanting 'we choose love.'"
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, called out Madonna for her "profanity-laced" speech Sunday when talking to ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on "This Week."
"You have a very prominent singer who's worth hundreds of millions of dollars not going over to a woman's shelter here in D.C. to write a check, but instead saying that she thought of, quote, 'burning down the White House,'" Conway said.