Madonna Fans Outraged By Bloody Nightclub Shooting In Her New Video For ‘God Control’: ‘Insensitive’

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[Warning: graphic images ahead.] Madonna’s demanding for more gun control, but some fans think her new music video hit too close to home. The 60-year-old pop icon dropped the graphic visuals to “God Control” on June 26, which depicts a shooting in a night club as Madonna sings lyrics such as “This is your wake up call.” The music video did open with the following trigger warning: “The story you are about to see is very disturbing. It shows graphic scenes of gun violence. But it’s happening everyday. And it has to stop.” What proceeded was an unsettling montage of a man wielding an assault rifle in a club, as images of bloody bodies flashed on the screen (including Madonna’s). The fictionalized shooting was a bit too real, especially for Patience Carter, a survivor of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting that took 49 innocent lives.

“As a survivor of gun violence, it was really hard to watch. I don’t think that was the right way to go about doing it because for someone like me, who actually saw these images, who actually lived these images again, dramatized for views, dramatized for YouTube, I feel like it was really insensitive,” Patience said in a video, obtained by TMZ. The survivor added that Madonna’s music video was “mostly accurate” in depicting what she “lived through” on that tragic night in Orlando, but warned fellow victims of shootings to not watch the “God Control” video.

Other viewers may have not experienced a shooting, but still thought Madonna’s video problematic. “The new Madonna video is quite on the nose, no? Glamourising club shootings? Sure,” one fan tweeted, while another viewer suggested the “Like a Prayer” singer was just going for shock value: “You’ve trafficked in shock value often for a long time now and that’s what this feels like Which would be fine except this is way too important for that And it very well may have the opposite effect you intend.”

Although Madonna has long been an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, some took issue with the club patrons depicted in her video. “As much as I respect the right of any artist to express a narrative that may not fit a particular mindset, I’m not sure how I feel about Madonna releasing a video that seemingly is centered on a bunch of club patrons being shot up during LGBTQ+ Pride Month,” a fan tweeted, while another viewer wrote, “now @Madonna [has] piggybacked on the LGBTQ movement and exploited our struggles for financial gain. so f***ing gross. yes, they’ve been doing this s**t for a while….but Madonna’s video is even worse.”

However, many appreciated Madonna’s call to social activism, as she also encouraged supporting organizations like March For Our Lives, Gays Against Guns and States United to Prevent Gun Violence. “Wow, what a message..I am very touched and I miss the words..Madonna, so brave and strong of you to shoot and publish such a video ..👌👏💪🙏❤,” one such fan tweeted, echoing the thoughts of many supportive fans in Madonna’s Twitter mentions.