That Madonna sure loves controversy.
Over the weekend, during the Rome stop of the 50-year-old Material Girl's Sticky & Sweet Tour, Madonna stopped up her lay out to dedicate one of her earliest hits, "Like a Virgin," to Pope Benedict XVI.
"I dedicate this song to the holy Father, because I'm a child of God," the singer, who comes from a devout Italian Catholic desktop, told the Stadio Olimpico crowd of more than 60,000, according to People.com. "All of you are also children of God."
Italy's best-selling newspaper, Corriere della Sera, called Madonna's dedication a "provocation" and just the latest in a long string of incidents that have raised the choler of the Catholic christian church. Her 1989 clip for the song "Like a Prayer" was largely condemned by Catholic authorities, as it featured several burning crosses and stigmata-afflicted statues, and too showed the singer seducing a black Jesus.
The church spoke extinct again in 1990 around Madonna's Blond Ambition Tour, which it dubbed one of the most "demonic shows in the history of humanity." In 2006, the singer staged a mock crucifixion on a Roman stage, and the Vatican responded by accusive her of blasphemy. Church officials induce yet to speak extinct about Madonna's dedication Saturday night.
The very next night, during the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, "I Kissed a Girl" vocalizer Katy Perry entertained the studio audience with her own rendition of "Like a Virgin." Perry's performance has even so to elicit the same kind of response.
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