Madonna: God Control (2019 Music Video) User Reviews

This should serve as a wake-up call to Madonna herself

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 2 September 2019]

Here we have the music video for the Madonna song "God Control" from 2019. Since being uploaded about two months ago on Youtube, this has scored approximately five million views, which may sound much, but given the controversial nature (or at least the controversial nature it tries to achieve) and the name Madonna, it is not as much as you would think it is. The reason is probably simply because it is not good. There is hardly no artist who has made as much of an impact as Madonna when it comes to being controversial in the the last 30 years or more, so it is especially sad to see what she has become looking at this this music video. It already starts woth Madonna calling herself "groundbreaking" in the description to said music video. But this by far is not the worst here. I don't want to go into detail really about the political message this one is sending. Everybody has to decide for themselves what to think of it. However, there is nothing daring or bold to this one. It feels all shocking for the sake of it toned down by political correctness and while I never saw the greatness in director Jonas Åkerlund (the way many do and the way I saw/see it in Madonna), I clearly would not expect him to stoop down to such low levels of music video making as he did here. The shocking aspects like a character shooting himself in the head, commiting a massacre at a night club, Madonna in character about to be raped at gunpoint (of course the #metoo statement shall not miss) feel just so shallow and these important subjects deserve a much better execution. Is there anything positive at all I can say about the outcome here? Difficult. Maybe that Madonna who was 60 when this was made (61 now) still looks amazing for her age no denying. She seems to have found an even bigger fountain of youth than Cher. Now as for the "cast" her, Kupono Aweau is the selection who is unknown and they wanted to turn into a star I suppose while Sofia Boutella is a really establed and successful actress already now. But yeah, these two cannot save the script etc. the weak music combination of Madonna's rapping (nah don't do it!) and a church choir that reminded me how this one really feels like a mix of Drake's "God's Plan" and Childish Gambino's "This is America". You know Madonna, one of the mos inspiring artists of all time, is in a weak spot if she comes up with a weak cope / poor (wo)man's version of somebody else's really successful work (which is not necessarily good either, even if mainstream media and awards bodies want you to think otherwise). So the tear Madonna is shedding at the end should be because of how disappointing the overall outcome here turned out to be. Big thumbs-down not recommended. Madonna is much better and should not be satisfied with the level that is the limit for the likes of Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj these days. Political or society-related messages without any creative substance at the very core. Hope she can return to quality as soon as possible, otherwise it would be better if she retires probably because if she keeps coming up with (not even) mediocrity like this, she will really hurt her amazing body of work in the long run. Highly not recommended. A definite contender of most pretentious 2019 music video. And no I won't even think of calling her Madame X. A way too long 8 minutes (again they wanted to be special and different by making it twice as long as most other music videos becaue "the message would not have fit into 4" will be the explanation I suppose) for nothing but the bin, can whatever. Huge thumbs-down.