As Madonna and Elton John settle years-long feud, the Queen of Pop’s MANY spats with fellow A-list stars… from calling Lady Gaga’s song ‘reductive’ and 50 Cent ‘jealous’

She’s known as the Queen of Pop – but Madonna is also seemingly the Queen of feuds thanks to her long-list of celebrity enemies.

The Like A Prayer hitmaker, 66, finally buried the hatchet with Elton John this week following a decades-long quarrel.

The pair shocked fans as they happily posed together in an Instagram snap backstage at SNL – after years of acrimony including Elton, 78, branding Madonna a ‘fairground stripper’ and laying into her over winning a Golden Globe over him.

Madonna shared the snap and declared: ‘We Finally Buried the Hatchet!!!’. Yet the singer likely hasn’t put all her celebrity feuds behind her.

During her four decades in the music industry, the pop icon has become embroiled in some extremely high-profile spats with stars including Kevin Costner, Pink and Mariah Carey.

Some have been resolved – such as her rivalry with Cher – but others, like 50 Cent’s criticism of the star, appear to linger still. 

The Material Girl hitmaker has also proven she doesn’t take kindly to her body of work being compared to others, as noted in her eight-year spat with Lady Gaga and her war-of-words with Janet Jackson. 

As Madonna resolves her quarrel with Elton, FEMAIL looks back at some of her celebrity feuds…  

CHER 

Cher never made her disdain for Madonna a secret – labelling her ‘rude’ and ‘spoiled’ in the past, while claiming she is ‘not beautiful’ and ‘not unbelievably talented’.

During an interview with the late Sir Terry Wogan in 1991, the Believe hitmaker said: ‘When I was in America, someone asked me, it’s not like I go around saying how I feel. Someone said to me, “What do you think about [Madonna]?” I said, “Well, I think she’s unbelievably creative.”

‘I’m amazed at the amount, in my day, I was pretty good at doing the same thing she’s doing but she does it so much better.’

She brutally added: ‘She’s unbelievably creative because she’s not unbelievably talented, she’s not beautiful but she’s rude.

‘So this man said, “How do you feel about her?” and I said, “She’s nice, she’s creative but she’s rude.” I said a different word but they bleeped me.

‘I don’t have anything against her, I do respect that she goes much further than anyone should do. The interesting thing about her is she’s willing to do whatever she wants to do.’

Cher appeared to reignite her feud with Madonna in 2018 when she was asked to answer questions within five seconds on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The songstress had to quickly name three singers she would like to participate in a duet with, and she replied: ‘Adele, Pink and…. and not Madonna!’

Ellen reminded Cher that the question was who she would like to collaborate with, to which Cher said, ‘Well, I took a little license.’

Cher previously explained her feud with Madonna in the 90s with Steve Kmetko.

She said: ‘There are lots of things that I respect about her. I think that she knows how to work the business like nobody I’ve ever seen before. There’s something about her that I don’t like. She’s… mean. I don’t like that.

‘I remember having her over to my house a couple of times, because [Sean Penn] and I were friends, and she just was so rude to everybody. She acts like a spoiled brat all the time.’

Cher added: ‘And it seems to me when you reach the kind of acclaim that she’s reached – and you can do whatever you want to do – you should be a little bit more magnanimous, and little bit less of a c**t.’

Despite the incendiary remarks, the pair proved all is forgiven as they happily posed up together in 2017 at the Women’s March on Washington.

In 2023, Cher reflected on her decades-old feud she had with Madonna during an in-depth interview with the Los Angeles Times.

When asked about her previous ‘beef’ with the superstar, the Believe singer shot the reporter down as she clarified that she ‘actually’ likes her former rival.

At one point during Madonna’s Celebration Tour, she included a video featuring several artists talking about her musical legacy. A moment when Cher called her ‘mean’ surprisingly made the cut.

‘She can be. We buried that hatchet a long time ago because I called her something so much worse, and she forgave me,’ Cher explained.

‘But I give her this: There’s no one like her that had their ear to the ground and knew everything before anybody else. 

‘I mean, she knew what was coming, and she was right on it. I always felt that was her greatest gift – that she could know the trends before any of us.’ 

LADY GAGA 

When Lady Gaga first burst on the music scene, she and Madonna seemed close, posing together at a 2009 Marc Jacobs fashion show.

The ladies even went on to have a pretend cat fight for a skit on Saturday Night Live in October of the same year.

However, relations between the pair went south after Gaga was accused of copying Madonna’s song Express Yourself on her 2011 single Born This Way.

When asked by ABC News about the similarities, which were pointed out by many fans on the internet, Madonna called the song ‘reductive.’

‘Is that good?,’ reporter Cynthia McFadden shot back to the short answer. ‘Look it up,’ the pop queen responded with a sly smile while taking a sip from her tea cup.

Madonna went on to mash up Born This Way with her own 1989 hit that Gaga was accused of copying on her MDNA Tour in 2012.

The ladies appeared to kiss and make up the following year when they were spotted posing together at the Met Gala in a social media photo with Katy Perry, seemingly attempting to prove there was harmony in the pop diva land.

However, in 2016 when Beats 1 Radio DJ Zane Lowe implied to Gaga that she and Madonna had very similar background stories, Gaga seemed annoyed by the comparison that has followed her through her career.

‘Madonna and I are very different. I wouldn’t make that comparison at all. I don’t mean to disrespect Madonna. She’s a nice lady. And she’s had a fantastic huge career she’s the biggest pop star of all time.

‘But I play a lot of instruments, I write all my own music. I spend hours and hours a day in the studio. I’m a producer, I’m a writer. What I do is different. I’m not just rehearsing over and over again to put on a show,’ she stated dryly.

Netflix documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two, shows the singer, 31, candidly discussing the Material Girl.

‘The thing with, like, me and Madonna, for example, is that I admired her always. And I still admire her no matter what she may think of me,’ the blond tells a friend as they sit on the floor.

‘The only thing that really bothers me about her is that I’m Italian and from New York, you know. So, like, if I’ve got a problem with somebody I’m gonna f—ing tell you to your face,’ says Gaga. ‘But, no matter how much respect I have for her as a performer, I could never wrap my head around the fact that she wouldn’t look me in the eye and tell me that I was reductive or whatever.’

But in December 2018 after a relatively calm period the Material Girl icon hit out at her rival for supposedly stealing a famous quote of hers.

The drama started when a video compilation circulated online of Gaga repeatedly using a quote during her A Star is Born press tour.

‘There can be 100 people in a room and 99 of them don’t believe in you, but all it takes is one and it just changes your whole life,’ the singer and actress has said on multiple occasions.

But it turns out the quote is very similar to one said by Madonna in the 1980s, with the star herself posting an Instagram story showing herself being interviewed thirty years ago, saying: ‘If there are 100 people in a room and 99 say they liked it, I only remember the one person who didn’t.’

In 2019 the pair appeared to finally bury the hatchet as they posed at an Oscars after-party after Gaga won the gong for Best Original Song.

50 CENT 

In one of the pop icon’s most bizarre feuds, she publicly rowed with rapper 50 Cent on social media after he branded her ‘old’ and a ‘grandma’ in response to her sexy snaps.

In December 2021, the Like A Virgin singer made headlines after she posted a series of racy shots donning black underwear with fishnet stockings and heels, with one shot showcasing her legs and rear end.

50 Cent subsequently reposted the latter shot with harsh words toward Madonna, citing her age and the nature of her posts.

‘Yo this is the funniest s***!’ the If I Can’t rapper wrote. ‘LOL That’s Madonna under the bed trying to do like a virgin at 63. [She] shot out, if she don’t get her old a** up. LMFAO.’

50 Cent also reposted the shot likening Madonna to the Wicked Witch of the East from The Wizard of Oz, photoshopping her legs and backside under a house in a frame from the 1939 classic.

‘STARZ ask me to do a remake, I said only if Madonna is gonna play the role because i need star power and sex appeal in this one,’ he wrote.

Madonna then took to Instagram to fire back, sharing a 2003 photo of herself affectionately posing alongside the rap artist and calling him out for phoniness.

‘Here is 50 Cent pretending to be my friend,’ the Material Girl wrote in text overlapping the image. ‘Now you have decided to talk smack about me! 

The Papa Don’t Preach artist added: ‘I guess your new career [is] getting attention by trying to humiliate others on social media [the] least elevated choice you could make as [an] artist and an adult,’ she said. 

‘You’re just jealous she won’t look as good as me or have as much fun when you’re my age!’

Madonna added: ‘Too bad there are no sour grapes [emojis].’ She also posted a clip in which she was using a Yoda filter, sharing a message of self-confidence with her 17.1 million followers.

‘Cheer up, things could be worse, you could be me for instance,’ she said. ‘Personally, I like the way I look, but there are those that find it hard to appreciate people and things that are different. 

‘And they try to shame me or humiliate me or make me feel less than because I am not like everyone else. But in fact, I cherish my uniqueness and I’ve grown stronger because to be unique is to be rare.’

In November 2022, 50 was at it again as he branded her a ‘grandma’ and slammed her over her bizarre lip-syncing video.

The In Da Club rapper took to Instagram to criticize her video in which she angrily lip synced along to the track Vent by Baby Keem. 

50 – real name Curtis James Jackson III – reposted an image of an article discussing Madonna’s video and wrote: ‘I told y’all grandma was on bulls**! like a virgin at 64. LOL’ before hashtagging his own alcohol brands.

In October 2023, 50 Cent once again used his social media platform to shade Madonna as he took to Instagram to post an outtake from the singer’s Celebration Tour.

He posted an image of the songstress in a body-hugging metallic silver catsuit side-by-side with a cartoon of a bug.

Alluding to the shape of her backside, he wrote in a caption to his 29.9 million followers: ‘who the f*** did this? She’s rich, how the hell she didn’t get it fixed.’

He added: ‘I want the f***ing doctors name right now. I mean damn it man! LOL.’ The comments quickly filled with fans defending the music artist, while others joined in on the joke.

PINK 

Pink previously spilled details on tension with her childhood musical hero Madonna in a candid interview. 

During an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show, the radio host asked the songstress if she was friends with big stars like the Material Girl, which she quickly responded matter-of-factly: ‘No. Madonna doesn’t like me.’

After Stern tried to get her to elaborate on the subject, the Pennsylvania native added, ‘Some people just don’t like me. I’m a polarizing individual.’

Stern then shot back and said ‘Madonna’s a polarizing individual’, which the mother of two agreed, all while seemingly thinking back at how she idolized her as a youngster. 

‘She is man. F**k I loved her,’ Pink confessed, before explaining why she thinks Madonna doesn’t like her. 

‘She tried to kind of play me on Regis And Kelly and I’m not the one so. I didn’t work out,’ she shared, which again prompted the host to try to get at the core of any potential feud between the two stars.

‘What does that mean she tried to play you?’ Stern asked. Pink said: ‘It’s just such a silly story. I f***ing love Madonna, and I love her no matter what. I still love her no matter what. She was such an inspiration to me, but it sort of got twisted around that I was like fangirling and was dying to meet Madonna, when in actuality she invited me into her dressing room. 

‘And so, I just said a joke when Regis brought me out and said, “I heard you were just falling over yourself backstage [at a Madonna show}. How does it feel?””

“I’m like, “I thought she wanted to meet me,”‘ she said of the joke on the daytime talk show years ago. ‘I didn’t work out for us.’ Stern summed it all up by saying, ‘Madonna took the joke personally.’

Pink also revealed that Madonna had originally wanted her to be a part of the iconic three-way kiss at the 2003 VMAs, which saw her lock lips with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. 

She told KTU 103.5: ‘I think we all were [invited]. I think Madonna wanted to kiss all of us. I was in Costa Rica at the time, having all kinds of fun with my boyfriend Carey Hart. Gwen Stefani was also invited, I remember. It was a bunch of us.

‘It was going to be a party. It would’ve been a really weird party.’

KEVIN COSTNER 

Madonna famously slammed Kevin Costner in an iconic scene in 1991 documentary Truth Or Dare after he visited her backstage at a concert and called her show ‘neat.’

After the star left, Madonna pretended to stick her finger down her throat in disgust and said: ‘Anybody who says my show is neat has to go.’

Years later Madonna finally apologized to Costner at an LA concert which he attended with his daughters, saying:  ‘I want to apologize to Kevin Costner.’

Speaking to the LA Times in 2007, Costner said he felt ’embarrassed and hurt’ by the initial incident, saying: ‘I just went back there because I was asked to go back. And I found the best word that I could. I never called her on it or whatever.’

Speaking of the apology, he added: ‘She did a really beautiful thing, She was performing [in L.A.] about three or four years ago, so I decided to take my daughters to see her. I just thought this is somebody they should see. I didn’t call anybody for tickets, I just got tickets and we went down.

‘And about the third song in, the lights were down, and she said “I want to apologize to someone.’” And all of a sudden my face starts to get hot. … She says, “I want to apologize to Kevin Costner”‘ She just said it very simply. Ninety-eight percent of that audience didn’t know what she was talking about. But I really respected that, and it showed me the power of just keeping your own counsel for a long time.’

MARIAH CAREY 

The battle of the divas kicked off in 1996 when Madonna told Spin she would rather ‘kill myself’ than sing ‘silly’ pop songs like Mariah.  

When asked: ‘Are there moments when you just say I wish I was Mariah Carey, just singing silly pop songs?’ to which Madonna responded: ‘I’d kill myself.’

‘People need something to look to, something to provoke them into questioning whether they completely hate something or completely love something. Perhaps somebody like Mariah Carey wishes she could make that happen.’

Carey then took a swipe at Madonna’s declining popularity, saying: ‘I really haven’t paid attention to Madonna since I was in seventh or eighth grade when she used to be popular.’

Mariah also made fun of Madonna’s new English accent after she wed Guy Ritchie during appearances on several talk shows.

Madonna later reportedly told her handlers to keep her apart from Carey during the 2006 Live 8 Concert in London. 

In 2019, Madonna posted a clip of herself backstage at the Billboard Music Awards, reacting to being asked to present Carey with the Billboard Icon Award.

She said: “At the Billboard Awards where I will be honored with nothing… as usual.”

Even Mariah’s then fiance James Packer got in on the action in 2015, saying: ‘Who else is there? There is Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Not Madonna. Those three can sing five octaves…’

JANET JACKSON 

Madonna and Janet Jackson perhaps inevitably clashed when both were fighting for the moniker, Queen of Pop during the height of their music careers. 

Jermaine Jackson’s book You Are Not Alone: Michael : Through a Brother’s Eyes, claimed Madonna dated Michael Jackson in the early 1990s.

During a dinner date, Madonna allegedly criticized Janet, which sparked the end of their romance, with the insult making its way back to Janet.

When asked about comparisons between her and Madonna in the mid 1990s. Janet said: ‘It’s dance music, I’ll say that, which is very similar. I think… How do I put this? I think what I do has class to it. I’ll say that.’

In a 1994 interview Janet said while she didn’t hate Madonna, she had ‘valid reasons to.’ 

Madonna later said she didn’t know why Jackson ‘dissed’ her and branded the comments ‘ominous.’  She also said she was ‘mystified’ by the comments as she’d ‘never met the woman.’

In a 1998 interview Madonna said of Jackson, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston: ‘They can’t do what I do’ – when she was told she held the record for best-selling female artist. 

Madonna would later happily pose up with Jackson at an event and defend her after the 2004 ‘Nipple-gate’ incident at the Super Bowl.

But she took an apparent swipe at Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction as she discussed her own half-time show in 2012, she said: ‘I have not mainstreamed and I’m not planning anything naughty. I’m planning something super entertaining.

‘You don’t have to show nipples to be interesting or and it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re cutting edge if you do right?

PATTI LUPONE 

Patti LuPone, who’d played the title role in the 1979 original Broadway production of Evita directed by Hal Prince, laid into Madonnaa back in 2017.

Appearing on Watch What Happens Live, she tore into Madonna, who’d played the Argentine first lady Eva Perón in the 1996 film adaptation.

‘Madonna is a movie killer,’ vamped Patti, ‘She’s dead behind the eyes. She cannot act her way out of a paper bag. She should not be on – in film or onstage.’

Allowing that ‘She’s a wonderful, you know, performer for what she does,’ the Broadway fixture insisted Madonna’s ‘not an actress,’ closing out, with a swipe of the hand: ‘Bing.’ 

When host Andy Cohen had initially asked Patti of Madonna: ‘What did you think of her role in Evita?’, Patti’s expression of faint contempt was enough to get her a laugh.

‘Well, I was on the treadmill,’ she recalled, ‘and I would, you know, when MTV used to have videos, right? And I saw, I believe it was Buenos Aires’ – an early belt-note-heavy number Eva performs in the musical – ‘and I thought it was a piece of s***.’

Patti also looked back on starring in a Tony-winning revival of the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes at the Vivian Beaumont Theater in Lincoln Center in 1988. 

At the time, Madonna was at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, also in Lincoln Center, working on Speed-The-Plow by David Mamet, whose work Patti’s played often.

Sitting with Andy and Christopher Meloni, Patti dished that ‘a press agent actually put a sign up that there was only one diva allowed in this theater at a time. It wasn’t me! It was a press agent that did it. I don’t know whether she ever found out about it.’

As the New York Times reported in 1988, Speed-The-Plow wound up scrapping its planned run at the Newhouse and heading straight to Broadway at what was then the Royale Theatre and has since been rechristened the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre.

Patti said: ‘I did meet her after her opening night party, and the only thing that Madonna has ever said to me was: “I’m taller than you.” Bada-bing.’

In a dishy and rancorous self-titled memoir written with Digby Diehl, Patti’s groused at length about the fraught experience of bringing Evita to Broadway in 1979.

BOY GEORGE 

In 2024, Boy George reignited his feud with the singer after he insisted that Madonna is ‘too full of herself’.

The Culture Club legend, 63, – who insisted ‘every gay man loves Madonna and there’s no one gayer than me’ – has reflected on several less than positive meetings with the Queen of Pop over the years.

He insisted her unfavourable memories of the first time they crossed paths couldn’t have happened like she recalled.

Writing in his memoir Karma: My Autobiography, he said while Madonna remembers him ‘head to toe in Westwood’, he was exclusively wearing Sue Clowes at the time.

Reflecting on a later meeting in New York City, George continued: ‘Madonna arrived with Sean Penn and pretended she didn’t see me.

‘Madonna is everything it says on the tin but she adds new ingredients every day. I know for a fact she’s too full of herself to even mention me.

‘She once said, ‘Boy George was mean to me in the eighties and he’s still mean.’ To be fair, I haven’t really been given the opportunity.’

The Karma Chameleon hitmaker insisted he is still a fan of her work, while he isn’t so certain she shares his ‘sense of humour’.

He said: ‘Not knowing anything about her I would assume she’d have issue with the word ‘some’…

‘I have a sense of humour, I don’t think Madonna does, despite some of the clothes she wears (LOL).’

George admitted he loves ‘all the drama’ and ‘pop star behaviour’, hailing her brand as ‘genius’.

However, he wrote: ‘But outside of that, you know, it’s how you act. You know, because you want, as I say in the book, you want your artists to be weirdly beautiful and strange and all that, but you also want them to be kind of ordinary.’

Despite their apparent feud over the years, George thinks they could become pals one day.

He said: ‘Like Bette and Joan, we should have been friends. There’s still time.’

Boy George has previously admitted he is ’embarrassed’ by his feud with Madonna.

Appearing on The Jonathan Ross Show in 2021 the singer was reminded he once referred to the Like A Virgin hitmaker as ‘vile’, prompting George to respond: ‘I’m actually a bit embarrassed I said that.’

The British pop icon told host Jonathan: ‘I treat Boy George from the 80s as a sort of cartoon character’.

On the show, comments previously made by George about other celebrities were read aloud, including a remark about Madonna.

George reportedly once referred to Madonna as a ‘vile, hideous human being with no redeeming qualities’.

Reflecting on his words, George said: ‘It’s not something I would say now… it’s really just, I’m actually a bit embarrassed I said that.’

He added: ‘Madonna… she fascinates me. I love Madonna. Come on, how can you not? Of course I do. She’s my contemporary. I’ve actually just sold some paintings of Madonna that I did.’

The musician then concluded: ‘I’ve not had the good sense to do that [work with her]. Could happen though. I wasn’t joking. Imagine me and Madonna on a record, it would be amazing come on.’

Both stars ruled the charts throughout the 1980s, and George has previously said Madonna ‘hates’ him.

Looking back on the decade, the Everything I Own singer told Jonathan: ‘That person is someone I created. I treat Boy George from the 80s as a sort of cartoon character.’

He continued: ‘I’m not that person. I do a lot of paintings of Boy George as I think of him as an invention… He’s a different person.’

ELTON JOHN

Madonna and Elton finally buried the hatchet this week following a decades-long feud.

The two music icons shocked fans as they happily posed up together in an Instagram snap backstage at SNL – after years of acrimony including John, 78, branding Madonna, 66, a ‘fairground stripper’ and laying into her over winning a Golden Globe over him.

Madonna shared the snap and declared: ‘We Finally Buried the Hatchet!!! I went to see @eltonjohn perform on SNL this weekend!! WOW.

‘I remembered when I was in high school- I snuck out of the house one night to see Elton perform live in Detroit! It was an unforgettable performance that helped me understand the transformative power of music.

‘Seeing him perform when I was in high school changed the course of my life. I had always felt like an outsider growing up and watching him on stage helped me to understand that it was OK to be different-to stand out- to take the road, less traveled by. In fact, it was essential.’

Unable to resist making a dig at the Your Song hitmaker’s past hurtful remarks, she continued: ‘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. I was told Elton John was the musical guest on SNL and I decided to go.

‘I needed to go backstage and confront him. When I met him, the first thing out of his mouth was, “Forgive Me” and the wall between us fell down.

‘Forgiveness is a powerful tool. Within minutes. We were hugging ‘Then he told me had written a song for me and he wanted to collaborate. It was like everything came full circle!! And you can tell everybody , This is Your Song…’

John responded: ‘Thank you for coming to see me at SNL. And thank you for forgiving me and my big mouth. I’m not proud of what I said. Particularly when I think about all the groundbreaking work you have done as an artist – paving the way for an entire generation of female artists to succeed and be true to themselves. 

‘You were also one of the very first people to rise up against HIV/AIDS in the 80’s, bringing love and compassion to so many who desperately needed it. I’m grateful we can move forward.’

The battle began in 2002, when Sir Elton called Madonna’s track Die Another Day the ‘worst Bond tune ever’.

It escalated in 2004 at the Q Awards, where Sir Elton won the Classic Songwriter Award and Madonna was nominated for Best Live Act.

Accepting his accolade, he said from the stage: ‘Madonna, best live act? F*** off. Since when has lip-syncing been live? Sorry about that, but I think everyone who lip-syncs on stage in public when you pay like 75 quid to see them should be shot. Thank you very much. That’s me off her Christmas card list, but do I give a toss? No.’

Madonna’s publicist responded: ‘Madonna does not lip-sync nor does she spend her time trashing other artists.

‘Elton John remains on her Christmas card list, whether he is nice… or naughty.’

John later called his Q Awards comments ‘unfair’ and added: ‘She’s been to my house for dinner. It was something I said in the heat of the moment, and probably should not have said.’

However, after Madonna turned down an invite to perform at his bachelor party, the singer was allegedly overheard telling his guests: ‘Madonna, the miserable cow, wouldn’t do it.’

Madonna’s spokesman responded: ‘Madonna wishes Elton all the best, and hopes married life will make him a happier person.’

In 2012, Sir Elton’s husband David Furnish also got in on the act. After Madonna took home the Golden Globe for best original song in 2012, beating Sir Elton, Mr Furnish said: ‘Madonna winning Best Original Song truly shows how these awards have nothing to do with merit. Her acceptance speech was embarrassing in its narcissism’.

John had previously said in the run- to the ceremony that Madonna had ‘no f***ing chance’ of winning against his track Hello Hello for animated film, Gnomeo & Juliet.

Madonna said in response: ‘Elton has been known to get mad at me, so I don’t know. He’s brilliant, and I adore him, so he’ll win another award. I don’t feel bad.’

After Madonna took a swipe at fellow pop star Lady Gaga in 2012, branding her derivative, Sir Elton waded in again, little realizing his scathing comments would be broadcast on TV.

Lady Gaga is godmother to one of his sons and he said: ‘[Madonna is] such a nightmare. Sorry, her career is over. Her tour has been a disaster and it couldn’t happen to a bigger c***.

‘She’s been so horrible to Gaga. If Madonna had any common sense she’d have made a record like Ray Of Light, stayed away from the dance stuff and just been a great pop singer and make great pop records which she does brilliantly.

‘But no, she had to prove that she was, like… and she looks like a f**king fairground stripper.’

Speaking of the blunder, the music legend said: ‘I was furious and I said some pretty horrible things about her to a TV interviewer in Australia, a guy I’d known since the seventies called Molly Meldrum.

‘You can tell from the footage that it wasn’t part of the interview, that I was just sounding off to an old friend between takes…

‘They broadcast it anyway, which brought that particular old friendship to a very swift conclusion. Still, I shouldn’t have said it. I apologized.’

In 2016 John revealed he has buried the hatchet with Madonna after apologizing and putting the years of bickering aside.

The singer said the reconciliation came when they were coincidentally ended up at the same restaurant and he invited her to share a meal with him.

He told The Graham Norton Show; ‘I said something horrible about her that you should never say. I was in a restaurant in the south of France a couple of years ago and she walked in so I sent her a note saying, “You’ll probably never speak to me again but I am really sorry and ashamed of myself and can I buy you dinner.” She was very gracious and accepted and we talked. We are fine – it was just me and my big mouth.’

The father of two jokingly added: ‘I can’t say it won’t happen again but not with Madonna!’

And his words rang true in 2019, when he trotted out his feud with Madonna again in memoir Me, writing: ‘I used to make fun of [Madonna] for lip-syncing on stage, but the problem really started when she ran Gaga down on an American chat show.

‘I got that Gaga’s single Born This Way definitely sounded similar to Express Yourself, but I couldn’t see why she was so ungracious and nasty about it, rather than taking it as a compliment… particularly when she claims to be a champion for women.’

He added: ‘I think it’s just wrong — an established artist shouldn’t kick down a younger artist right at the start of their career.’