Beyoncé ditched her traditional surprise drop for Renaissance, but she had one more major bombshell for fans: Last week, she dropped a special remix of “Break My Soul” with tweens from Madonna’s legendary “Vogue.” As Beyoncé sings as the track opens, “I, mother of my house, swear to keep my fucking mouth to myself,” we all know now that’s something Madonna could never promise. The Queen of Pop doesn’t hold her tongue or pretend affection, and she certainly isn’t confiding her legacy to just anyone. Allowing another singer to reinterpret one of her definitive songs is a great mark of respect.
After the release, Madonna took to Instagram to share photos of the notes and flowers Beyoncé sent her. “You are a masterpiece of genius. Thank you for letting me sing in your song and thank you for naming the remix!!!!” Bey wrote on the card. (So it turns out Madonna herself suggested the title “The Queens Remix.”) Clearly, the crowned Queen of Pop doesn’t recognize any former singer as another royal.
Although the couple hasn’t often flaunted their relationship in public, there’s actually a long history of friendship and mutual respect between Madonna and Beyoncé.
Get together for Oprah
While we don’t know when Beyoncé and Madonna first met (Bey was in the audience for that famous 2003 VMAs performance with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, after all), the first time they were seen together on stage was for Opra. For the final episodes of her talk show in 2011, Oprah hosted a massive event at the United Center in Chicago. Madonna surprised her with a speech, while Beyoncé gave a graduation-themed performance of “Run The World (Girls).” The two stars appeared side by side on stage at the very end, and looked pretty pals.
Madonna Stans at Beyoncé and the Anointed Queen Concert
While Beyoncé and Madonna have attended many of the same events and awards shows over the years, audiences didn’t really get how great Beyoncé Stan Madonna was until 2013. That year, she took her daughter, Mercy James, on one of The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour and quickly freaked out about it on Instagram. “Mrs. Carter crushes BK with her bad ass show! Girls rule the world!” Madonna wrote under a blurry photo from the show she took. She captioned another of Bey leaning in to kiss Mercy on the forehead with, “Mercy James gets a big fat one from Queen B!”
Beyoncé credits Madonna for inspiring her new career direction
A few days later, Beyoncé screened her self-titled visual album at the School of Visual Arts in New York. The album marked a definitive turning point in Bey’s career, and the one she revealed was inspired by Madonna. “I felt like I wanted to follow in Madonna’s footsteps and be a powerhouse and have my own empire,” she reportedly told the crowd, “and show other women that when you get to that stage of your career, you don’t have to go and sign with someone else and share your money and your success. You can do it yourself.”
She pursued this reflection in an interview with The nice woman that same year. “I think of Madonna and how she took all the great things she’s done and started the label and developed other artists. But there aren’t enough of these women.
In this same video, she says that she Life is anything but a dream documentary was inspired by Madonna Truth or Dare. “It’s a different personality and a different approach, but we’re doing the same thing,” Bey said.
Some People Think Beyoncé’s ‘Haunted’ Video Was Inspired By ‘Justify My Love’
Beyoncé herself has never confirmed as much, but when the visual for “Haunted” was released, several commenters compared it to Madonna’s notoriously banned “Justify My Love” video. It’s certainly not the most direct reference, but both videos involve the pop stars walking through a fancy hotel while witnessing all sorts of suggestive and sensual things as they walk through the rooms.
“Haunted” was directed by Jonas Åkerlund. He didn’t direct “Justify,” but his first big breakthrough directing pop music videos was Madonna’s “Ray of Light.” He continued to be one of the go-to video directors for both singers.
Madonna Says Beyoncé Isn’t Illuminati In Song Lyrics
Powerful famous friends don’t let powerful famous friends be accused of being part of the Illuminati. On the album track “Illuminati” from his 2014 album rebel heart, Madonna shouts out Beyoncé and Jay Z in the very first line of the song, stating that they are not affiliated with the Secret Society. Other things that Madonna says aren’t part of the Illuminati: the Pope, “Clinton or Obama”, Justin Bieber, “Prada or Gucci” and “Gaga” triangles. What is the Illuminati? “Everyone in this party.”
It was about a year before Beyoncé confirmed it on “Formation,” saying, “You all hate idiots with this Illuminati mess.” So it’s safe to say that they’re both on the same page.
Beyoncé appears in ‘Bitch I’m Madonna’ music video
Beyoncé dipped her toes into hyperpop on Renaissance with the AG Cook co-produced track “All Up in My Mind”, but it wasn’t necessarily his first connection to the genre. She made a guest appearance (via a separately shot video appearance) in Madge’s 2015 “Bitch I’m Madonna” video, a kind of proto-hyperpop track that featured songwriting input from Cook’s frequent collaborator the late musician Sophie. Appropriately, Beyoncé does a bit of light voguing in her cameo.
Madonna Says Beyoncé ‘Ticks All The Boxes’
In 2015, Entertainment Weekly let Bravo Kingpin guest Andy Cohen edit a number. Of course, he managed to land an interview with Madonna herself, who took the opportunity to praise Bey.
“She’s a great performer and she puts on a show,” Madonna told Cohen. “She’s a professional, you know what I mean?” She ticks all the boxes. She’s great live, and everything around her is complete entertainment… She gives it her all, so I appreciate that.
Bey surprises Madonna in concert
Two years after Madonna went to one of Beyoncé’s shows, Bey returned the favor. She was spotted at the Los Angeles area stop of The Rebellious Heart Tour.
Some gossip reports related to Gwyneth Paltrow
If you’re not aware that Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow were very public BFFs and one day all of a sudden they weren’t, we don’t have time to go into all of that. You’d need an entire celebrity gossip symposium of the 90s and early 2000s to fully cover the subject (and even then, no one knows the real story yet). Well, Beyoncé and her husband Jay Z were also friends with Gwyneth and her ex, Chris Martin. In 2015, there were a series of false rumors that the queen of Parkwood and the queen of Goop broke up because Beyoncé got close to Madonna.
As this stuff goes on, it looks like maybe it’s just BS. Paltrow and Beyoncé continued to be friendly with audiences for years (Paltrow was even there for Beyoncé’s Super Bowl show, where she performed alongside Martin).
Years of attending the same VIP parties
Beyoncé has mastered the art of going to VIP parties without leaking paparazzi photos of her, so we can’t be too sure what really happened inside those shindigs. But we can definitely find reports that Bey and Madge have attended plenty of exclusive parties over the years. They were both at The xx’s last show of a series of concerts in New York in 2014, at Daft Punk’s Grammy’s after party the same year and at several Met Galas.
Madonna also came out to support a few Beyoncé-related efforts
When Beyoncé calls, Madonna tells her she’s there.
Madonna was one of the music superstars on stage in 2015 to support the launch of Jay Z’s streaming service, Tidal. Madonna also appeared at the 2013 “Chime For Change: The Sound of Change Live” concert at Twickenham Stadium in London, an event Beyoncé helped organize.
And, finally, “The Queens Remix”
by Beyoncé Renaissance was largely inspired by the Ballroom scene, a subculture Madonna extracted for her 1990 hit “Vogue.” While Madonna employed members of the community (one of whom, José Xtravaganza, had just taken to the stage with her a little earlier this summer), her appropriation of culture is still highly debated. On Beyoncé’s reimagining of the song’s iconic spoken verse, she swaps Madonna’s odes to (mostly white) Hollywood stars of yore and replaces them with black female musicians and lists the names of several actual ballrooms. It’s an ambitious re-imagining of the song, and Madonna wouldn’t let anyone try. It seems that she is satisfied with the results.
