Inside pop’s most explosive feuds as Madonna and Sir Elton John kiss and make up

There’s been some epic feuds in the pop world (Picture: Getty)

In a shocking update that no pop culture fan expected, Madonna and Sir Elton John have finally buried the hatchet.

The Like A Virgin singer, 66, and Your Song star, 78, have been trading barbs publicly for more than two decades — until now.

However, they’re not the only huge names to clash incredibly publicly over the years as creative passions turn into huge spats.

That battle to be the best can tip over into sly comments and not-so-subtle digs, sparking disagreements that live on for years.

From Drake and Kendrick Lamar to Noel Gallagher’s dramatic exit from Oasis, every genre of music has had its rough patches.

As Madonna and Sir Elton make peace, we look at some of the biggest pop feuds and whether the animosity has faded.

Madonna and Sir Elton John have buried the hatchet (Picture: Instagram/Madonna) Madonna and Sir Elton John

While it is now buried, the clash between Madonna and Sir Elton is one for the history books.

Kicking off in 2004, Sir Elton shaded the Queen of Pop by declaring she had been lip-syncing after she received an award for best live act.

He said: ‘Sorry about that but I think everyone who lip-syncs in public on stage when you pay £75 to see them should be shot. Thank you very much.’

At the time, the Rocketman acknowledged that he would be ‘off her Christmas card list’ but didn’t ‘give a toss’.

Win two tickets to Polygon Live, the UK's first immersive music festival

Polygon Live is a 360 immersive music experience (Picture: Marc de Groot)

Metro has teamed up to give away 20 pairs of tickets to Polygon Live LDN, a unique new festival taking place in London’s Crystal Palace Park from 2-4 May 2025.

Blending light and spatial sound, the 360º immersive festival has a stellar lineup including popular artists such as Max Cooper, Jon Hopkins and Tinariwen, as well as the likes of Arooj Aftab and Photay.

For a chance to win an incredible day out at this UK-first festival for you and a friend, simply enter your details here.

You have until midnight on 18 April 2025 to enter. Good luck!

*Open to GB (excluding N. Ireland) residents aged 18 or over. Promotion open from 12:01 on 02/04/2025 and closes at 23:59 on 18/04/2025. 1 entry per person. 20 prizes of 2x General Admission Single Day tickets to attend 1 day of Polygon Live LDN 2025 at Crystal Palace Park, valid for either Friday 2 May 2025, Saturday 3 May 2025 or Sunday 4 May 2025. 1 entry per person.
Full T&Cs apply, see here. Full Polygon T&Cs apply to entry and attendance, see here.

They’ve been at odds for years (Picture: Sipa/REX/Shutterstock)

It was more than just Christmas cards, though, as a war of words promptly erupted — as if Madonna would take the disrespect lying down.

In 2012, she beat Sir Elton for a Golden Globe for best original song, saying she ‘didn’t feel bad’ and that he would always win another award.

Things took a spicy turn that year as Australia’s Channel 7 broadcast him venting during the break of their interview about Madonna branding Lady Gaga’s hit Born This Way ‘reductive’.

He fumed: ‘Why is she such a nightmare? Sorry, her career is over. Her tour has been a disaster and it couldn’t happen to a bigger c***.’

Yikes.

In his 2019 memoir, Me, Sir Elton expressed that the Vogue singer shouldn’t have been so ‘ungracious and nasty’ about Gaga’s work but said he regretted the comments.

Madonna said all is forgiven (Picture: Mickey Bernal/REX/Shutterstock)

‘I think it’s just wrong — an established artist shouldn’t kick down a younger artist right at the start of their career,’ he added but claimed to have apologised.

Flash forward six years, and it’s all water under the bridge as Madge dropped in to ‘confront him’ backstage at SNL in April.

She shared a photo of them both embracing for the camera, confirming that he had asked for ‘forgiveness’.

‘When I met him, the first thing out of his mouth was, “Forgive Me” and the wall between us fell down,’ she wrote. ‘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!!’

Taylor Swift and Kanye West Kanye West stole Taylor Swift’s moment at the 2009 VMAs (Picture: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

Possibly one of the most explosive and twisty feuds of the 2010s was the unexpected fallout between Taylor Swift and Kanye West.

Before Ye decided to go on antisemitic rants on X, he was already known for some erratic behaviours — including crashing the Fearless hitmaker’s speech.

In 2009, at the VMAs, Taylor was on stage accepting the award for best female video but the Power rapper let everyone know that he thought someone else should have won.

‘Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish,’ Ye said as he burst on stage and took the microphone. ‘but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!’

The camera panned to a mortified Queen Bey, Taylor looking lost and (understandably) upset as everyone around the stage looked baffled by his actions.

The feud appeared to be briefly mended in 2015 as the Cruel Summer singer presented him with MTV’s Video Vanguard Award but Ye sparked it again with his infamous song Famous.

He raps that she ‘might owe him sex’ as he ‘made that b***h famous’, paired with a music video in which a lifelike replica of Taylor lies naked in bed with him.

Whether or not Taylor knew about the lyric became the centre of further fallout after Kim Kardashian ‘leaked’ a video of her agreeing to be included in the song.

Kim claimed it was all ‘playing the victim’ and Taylor was ‘completely aware’ of it all, which prompted this statement: ‘It was on that phone call that Kanye West also asked her to release the song on her Twitter account, which she declined to do.

All seemed forgiven when Taylor presented him with the Vanguard award (Picture: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

‘Kanye West never told Taylor he was going to use the term “that b***h” in referencing her. A song cannot be approved if it was never heard.

‘Kanye West never played the song for Taylor Swift. Taylor heard it for the first time when everyone else did and was humiliated. Kim Kardashian’s claim that Taylor and her team were aware of being recorded is not true, and Taylor cannot understand why Kanye West, and now Kim Kardashian, will not just leave her alone.’

Later, another version of the phone call leaked, in which Taylor does not give approval of the second line and can be heard saying she was relieved she wasn’t being called a ‘stupid b***h’.

The backlash against Taylor went on to inspire one of her most beloved albums, reputation, as well as the track thanK you aIMee (supposedly).

Reputation came out of the saga and mass backlash against Taylor (Picture: Kevin Mazur/TAS18/Getty Images)

Things remain icy, with Lil Wayne singing on Ye’s Vultures 2 album: ‘I twist my Taylor spliffs tight at the end like Travis Kelce.’

Hours later, while performing on the Eras Tour, she wore a t-shirt with ‘I Bet You Think About Me,’ written across it, which some fans interpreted as a subtle response.

Serious bad blood, and we highly doubt there’s forgiveness on the horizon for these two.

Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez

Mariah Carey’s ‘I don’t know her’ is possibly the most iconic feud starter out there.

When asked about her fellow pop divas, she had praise for everyone except Jennifer Lopez, who she simply doesn’t know.

However, JLo has insisted the pair have met on multiple occasions and exchanged pleasantries.

Jennifer Lopez insisted that Mariah Carey did ‘know her’ (Picture: Dimitri Hakke/Redferns via Getty Images)

It’s unclear whether animosity began between the divas, with some reporting it started when Mariah released Glitter after divorcing her husband, Tommy Mottola.

In her memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, she claims her Sony Music executive ex wanted revenge and JLo got caught in the middle.

‘After hearing my new song, using the same sample I used, Sony rushed to make a single for another female entertainer on their label (whom I don’t know),’ she wrote.

Over the years, she has sent a little more shade Jennifer’s way in various interviews questioning her vocal abilities.

Speaking to Talk Magazine, Mariah claimed she slept for just three hours a night compared to JLo, who sleeps for eight, and added: ‘If I had the luxury of not actually having to sing my own songs … I’d do that too.’

In 2016, Mariah clarified her ‘I don’t know her’ comment and added to Andy Cohen: ‘It’s not personal… it wasn’t like, I don’t know who she is. Of course I do.’

Jenny from the block has kept fairly quiet on the apparent feud, agreeing while on Wendy Williams that the Obsessed hitmaker is ‘forgetful, I guess’.

By 2018, Mariah changed her tune and said she really didn’t know the On The Floor hitmaker, putting us all into a headspin.

Things have been quiet ever since Mariah’s memoir but who knows with these two when it might bubble up again.

Prince and Michael Jackson

The sting of rejection can really hurt, and it seems that Michael Jackson may have taken it personally when Prince turned down collaborating not once but twice.

He turned down the chance to appear on a song as well as rebuffing his an invite to work on the We Are The World project, although he did donate a song to the album.

Michael Jackson felt he was snubbed by Prince (Picture: Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

In his 1988 autobiography, Moonwalker, the Bad hitmaker branded Prince his ‘opponent’ and called the Purple Rain legend over-emotional, rude, competitive, and nasty — not exactly warm feelings.

One particularly unfortunate interaction came after Michael joined James Brown on stage; he tried to set up Prince by daring him to follow the performance.

Prince stepped up to the challenge, ripping off his top and giving his all for the crowd … only to fall off the stage after leaning on a set piece.

MJ was reportedly rather pleased with the tumble, feeling a bit smug and on later released recordings, he could be heard saying: ‘He made a fool of himself. He was a joke…People were running and screaming.

‘I was so embarrassed. It was all on video.’

Prince was insulted and apparently waited outside the venue to run his rival over with his car, according to the late legend Quincy Jones.

‘He’s always been not nice to me,’ Michael allegedly told will.i.am years later after the Purple One played guitar in his face.

The Smooth Criminal singer reportedly added: ‘Everybody says Prince is this great legendary Renaissance man and I’m just a song-and-dance man, but I wrote “Billie Jean” and I wrote “We Are the World” and I’m a songwriter too.’

The duo never buried the hatchet but after MJ’s death, Prince stated: ‘It is always sad to lose someone you loved’ and later declined to talk about it, saying he was ‘too close to it’.

Cher and Madonna

Madonna again in one of her many pop bust ups, this time she went toe-to-toe with another mononym legend; Cher.

This one seems to stem from Cher simply thinking the Material Girl is ‘rude’ after she had come over for dinner with Sean Penn.

Cher branded Madonna ‘rude’ after a dinner together (Picture: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

In 1991, she told Steve Kmetko: ‘It seems to me that she’s got so much that she doesn’t have to act the way that she acts, like a spoiled brat all the time.’

Digging the knife in a little more, Cher also told Terry Wogan: ‘She’s unbelievably creative cos she’s not unbelievably talented, she’s not beautiful.’

Madonna never chimed in on the feud over the years, so if she had any strong opinions on the Believe hitmaker, she kept them firmly to herself.

The feud rumbled on for years but seemed to have been forgiven recently, with both women appearing at a Women’s March in Washington in 2017.

In 2023, Cher addressed the feud again after Madonna used the ‘mean’ clip in her Celebration Tour introduction.

The pair reunited in 2017 and are thought to be friendly now (Picture: Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

‘I said a lot worse than that,’ the 77-year-old said to The Los Angeles Times. ‘We buried that hatchet a long time ago because I called her something so much worse, and she forgave me.’

Maybe one day we will see a collaboration between these two titans of music.

Robbie Williams and Take That

The split that shocked the pop world — no, not the Gallaghers — but Robbie Williams’ dramatic exit from Take That.

Dragged up recently in his biopic Better Man, the feud was of epic proportions with a suicide hotline put in place to help devastated fans.

He very publicly put down Gary Barlow at every turn after his 1995 exit, as he continued to spiral into excessive substance use and partying.

Take That’s breakup shocked the world(Picture: Tim Roney/Getty Images)

As things got more tense, Robbie is said to have branded Gary as ‘clueless’ and said the group, ‘had all the creativity of morons’.

Gary accused him of being jealous of his whopping £6,500,000 fortune from songwriting, a particularly sore spot as the Rock DJ hitmaker had been trying to get his own songs out there.

However, Angels was then released and turned the tables as it shot Robbie to the top of the charts.

‘I wanted to crush him. I wanted to crush the memory of the band – and I didn’t let go,’ Robbie shared in 2010.

Gary felt that crush as he later confessed: ‘It was a really humiliating thing that happened. I’d been in this band, it all ends, you get dropped, one of your band members goes on to be stratospheric, you’re just the loser.

‘There’s like a big “L” wherever you look, all over your body, you’re just a loser. I just didn’t want to be me. I just hated myself at that point.’

In the years since, that animosity and competition has died down, and after an ‘uncomfortable’ chat, the pair reunited for Shame — a duet released in 2010.

Gary later admitted: ‘Living with that kind of feud isn’t right. The Chat was like an exorcism.

‘In the end, he left, and we handled that badly. We let him leave the fold and no one looked after him. Robbie was barely 21.

‘What happened between me and Rob always bothered me.’

The two are friends again, with Robbie making script edits ahead of his film to make sure Gary was comfortable with his portrayal.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.