Madonna and Elton John's reconciliation explained: Why did they fall out in the first place?

Madonna and Elton John are music legends with genuinely incredible Official Charts records. Queen Madge has 12 Number 1 albums to her name – while King Elts is heading for his 10th this week with his Brandi Carlile collaboration Who Believes in Angels?

But, sadly, their interpersonal relationship hasn't always been as joyous as their music...until now.

On the evening of Monday April 7, the pop titans thrilled the internet by revealing that they've "buried the hatchet" – Madonna's words – and are even planning a duet. Madge explained in an Instagram post that they cleared the air this weekend when she paid him a visit at Saturday Night Live.

"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!!"

 

 

 

 

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MORE: See where every Madonna song and album has charted in the UK

But why was there there bad blood between the two superstars to begin with? Here's the full story, as far as we know it.

Why did Madonna and Elton John fall out? Feud explained:

For a start, Madonna and Elton haven't always been at loggerheads. In 1998, they sang together at the Rainforest Foundation Benefit Concert in New York as part of an ensemble performance that also included Sting and Roberta Flack.

But four years later, Elton spoke less than graciously about Madonna's visionary Bond theme Die Another Day. "It hasn't got a tune,” he told Sky News.

"James Bond themes are usually very camp, and this one’s different… They should have gone for somebody like Lulu and Shirley Bassey, or maybe I'm in that league?”

Then in 2004, he threw further shade when Madonna was nominated for Best Live Act at the Q Awards. "Madonna, best live act?" Elton said when he collected the Classic Songwriter prize. "Since when has lip-syncing been live?"

The prospect of a pop rapprochement dropped dramatically in 2012, when both artists were nominated for Best Original Song at the Golden Globes. Speaking on the red carpet ahead of the ceremony, Elton opined that Madonna's nominated song – Masterpiece from her historical film W.E. – "didn't have a chance of winning".

However, later that night, Madonna collected the Golden Globe ahead of Elton's nominated song, Hello Hello, which appeared in the animated movie Gnomeo & Juliet. She told press in the winners' room that she hoped Elton would "speak to me for the next couple of years" because "he's been known to get mad at me".

Later that year, Elton took aim at Madonna again when he called her MDNA World Tour a "disaster" and questioned the dance-oriented direction of her MDNA album (one of her 12 UK Number 1s). 

"If Madonna had any common sense, she would have made a record like Ray of Light, stayed away from the dance stuff and just been a great pop singer and made great pop records, which she does brilliantly," he told Australia's Channel 7. "But no. And she looks like a... fairground stripper.”

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Elton John (@eltonjohn)

MORE: See where every Elton John song and album has charted in the UK

The first glimmers of a reconciliation came in 2023 when Elton praised a section of Madonna's Celebration Tour that honoured the millions claimed by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. 

"Thank you, Madonna, for your advocacy and compassion, and for raising important awareness of the ongoing mission to end AIDS," he wrote on Instagram.

However, it seems that a full-scale truce was only negotiated this weekend, backstage at Saturday Night Live.

Though Madonna has rarely spoken about her apparently fraught relationship with Elton, she acknowledged in her latest Instagram post that the criticism took a toll. "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," she wrote.

For his part, Elton responded graciously to Madonna's Instagram post about their reunion, praising her "for paving the way for an entire generation of female artists to succeed and be true to themselves".

He added sweetly: "I’m grateful we can move forward. I’m increasingly distressed by all the divisiveness in our world at the moment."

There's only one thing to add, really – bring on that duet, legends.

Article images: Getty