At Billboard’s Women in Music event, Madonna was awarded “Woman of the Year” for her accomplishments and took the opportunity to reflect on tragedy.
Madonna Boasts About Surviving Prince, Bowie, and Whitney in Acceptance Speech (VIDEO) https://t.co/ibXzQVUsD5
โ TMZ (@TMZ) December 10, 2016
During the speech, Madonna lists, “Michael is gone, Tupac is gone, Prince is gone, Whitney is gone, Amy Winehouse is gone, David Bowie is gone…but I’m still standing.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
The rest of her speech focused on how many challenges and controversies she faced throughout her career and emphasized that she was “one of the lucky ones.” Ultimately, Madonna was trying to convey the many hardships that come with living a life in the public eye, and how drugs, crime, or merely time catches up with even the greatest performers and she’s lucky enough to still be around.
Understandably, the crowd was left very confused by the sentiment and clearly hesitated a few moments before deciding to just applaud.
[H/T TMZ]
Most Viewed
-
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 25: Brad Everett Young attends Captain Morgan spiced up the M3GAN 2.0 event in LA with a bold cameo of its limited-edition Captain M3GAN bottle at Academy LA on June 25, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Universal Pictures and Blumhouse)