Madonna and Elton John end decades-long feud: 'Forgiveness is a powerful tool'
It's been a long, long time that there's been bad blood between Elton John and Madonna. But after more than two decades, the pair have patched things up.
The "Like a Virgin" singer, 66, revealed in an Instagram post Monday that she and John "finally buried the hatchet" over the weekend after she confronted him backstage at "Saturday Night Live."
"Forgiveness is a powerful tool," she wrote. "Within minutes. We were hugging."
John, who has spoken negatively about Madonna on numerous occasions over the years, served as a musical guest for Saturday's "SNL" episode, hosted by Jack Black. Madonna said she decided to go to the show after hearing John would be there, and she felt she "needed to go backstage and confront" him.
But according to Madonna, it didn't take long for them to mend fences.
"When I met him, the first thing out of his mouth was, 'Forgive Me' and the wall between us fell down," she wrote, also revealing that John then "told me had written a song for me and he wanted to collaborate."
Paste BN has reached out to representatives for John.
In a comment on her Instagram post, John thanked Madonna for coming to see him, adding, "Thank you for forgiving me and my big mouth. I'm not proud of what I said."
Elton John and Madonna's feud, explained
The animosity between John and Madonna dates back more than 20 years. In 2004, the "Rocket Man" singer famously accused Madonna of lip-synching in a speech at the Q Awards.
"Since when has lip-synching been live?" he asked in response to Madonna being nominated for best live act.
A spokesperson for Madonna denied the allegation at the time, telling The Associated Press, "Madonna does not lip-synch nor does she spend her time trashing other artists. She sang every note of her Re-Invention tour live and is not ashamed that she was well paid for her hard work."
John continued to insult Madonna over the years, including by saying in a 2012 interview that "she's such a nightmare" and "her career is over." Also in 2012, John's husband David Furnish slammed Madonna's best original song win at the Golden Globes, writing that this "truly shows how these awards have nothing to do with merit." John was nominated in the same category.
But there was some hint of peace on the horizon in 2023. After Madonna honored AIDS victims on her tour, John thanked her in an Instagram post, saying he was "deeply moved by the heartfelt tribute." John in 1992 founded the nonprofit Elton John AIDS Foundation, which has raised millions of dollars for HIV education and prevention.
In her post Monday announcing the end of the feud, Madonna reflected that seeing John perform live when she was in high school "changed the course of my life," so "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."
With the feud at an end, she went on to write, "It was like everything came full circle!"
In his comment on Instagram, John wrote that he is "grateful" that he and Madonna can move forward.
"I'm increasingly distressed by all the divisiveness in our world at the moment," he said. "Both you and I have wholeheartedly been accepted and embraced by communities who are under threat around the world. By pulling together, I'm hopeful that we can make great things happen for those who really need support. And have a lot of fun doing it!"