Jonathan Short/Associated Press
Madonna in concert in London.
Madonna defended her decision to use a swastika in a video during her current tour, saying it is a fit image for her message about “the intolerance that we human beings have for one another.”
The Nazi symbol is superimposed on the forehead of the French National Front leader Marine Le Pen during a video that Madonna has been playing while she sings “Nobody Knows Me” at her concerts during a world tour. Last week, the far-right party said it would sue Madonna after a concert in Paris and accused her of cynically insulting Ms. Le Pen to gain publicity.
Ms. Le Pen, who placed third in France’s presidential election in April, was one of several famous figures depicted in the video: others included Sarah Palin, President Hu Jintao of China and Pope Benedict XVI. In February, Ms. Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who founded the National Front, was found guilty of condoning war crimes after he said the Nazi occupation of France had “not been particularly inhumane.”
Madonna has not changed the video since the National Front threatened to sue her, and it was shown at least three concerts in Britain last week. Asked about the Nazi imagery by a Brazilian television journalist for a piece that was broadcast over the weekend, the singer said the image was justified because the song concerns intolerance and explores the question of “how much we judge people before knowing them.”
“Music should be about ideas, right?” she said. “Ideas inspire music.”
The use of the swastika is not the first controversial piece of theater Madonna has employed on her tour to promote “MDNA,” her current album. On Saturday, she brandished a prop pistol onstage in Edinburgh despite a warning from police not to do so. And on June 8, she exposed her breast during a show in Istanbul while singing “No Fear.”