Madonna has been criticised for comparing Lil Nas X’s same-sex kiss at the BET Awards to her infamous 2003 kiss with Britney Spears.
Performing his single “Montero (Call Me By Your Name) at the award ceremony on Monday (28 June), the rapper ended his set by kissing a male dancer while dressed as an Egyptian pharaoh.
While fans praised Nas for his performance, he received a flurry of homophobic abuse online, with the 22-year-old later commenting that people were “still acting surprised that I am being gay and sexual in performances of a song about gay and sexual s***”.
On Tuesday (29 June), Madonna shared a picture of Nas kissing his dancer on stage alongside a still from her performance from the 2003 MTV VMAs, during which she and Spears famously shared a kiss on stage.
“#Diditfirst,” she captioned the post.
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Madonna’s Story prompted a negative reaction from fans, many of whom pointed out the differences between her and Britney’s kiss and Lil Nas X’s as a gay Black man.
“Help not her taking a moment from an actual queer person,” one fan commented.
Another Twitter user commented: “I hate giving bad takes attention i’m sorry but this is so icky like u can not even compare the two u little freak… like Madonna makes my brain hurt sometimes [sic].”
“Madonna saying “I did it first” in response to Lil Nas X’s performance shows just how out of touch some of these ally’s [sic] are with the movement,” another tweet read.
However, some fans pointed out that Madonna had also faced significant backlash to the kiss in 2003.
“She deserves credit — people pretend it was no big thing, but it was a risk and had she not been so eager to do provocative things she’d actually be much more popular than she even is,” one Twitter user wrote.
“But she should also see the clear difference here. Comes off as petty.”
The Independent has contacted Madonna’s representatives for comment.
