Bold words. Madonna spoke out on the state of modern-day France and Europe in a new interview with Europe 1 Radio, comparing current times to the era of Hitler, the Nazis, and the Third Reich.
The "Living for Love" singer, 56, was speaking to the radio station about her new song "Ghosttown" off her upcoming 13th studio solo album Rebel Heart. She was asked about the foreboding lyrics of the track, which has her crooning about the "darkest days" when all fell apart.
"'Ghosttown' is like, for me, a kind of foreshadowing of two people living like the only lovers left alive in a post-apocalyptic world," Madonna began. "I feel like that's where we're heading for if we continue to behave the way we behave, to treat one another the way we're treating one another, to maintain this level of intolerance and discriminatory prejudice… hateful behavior towards other human beings who are different than you are."
"France was once a country that accepted people of color," the Grammy winner continued. "It was once a place that artists escaped to, whether it was Josephine Baker or Charlie Parker or writers, painters, whatever. It was a country that embraced everyone and that encouraged freedom in every way, shape, or form — freedom of expression, artistic freedom, for example."
"Now, it's completely gone," she noted. "It's like, to me, you know, I said this two years ago, it's like we're living in a crazy time. It feels like, you know, Nazi Germany. All of these people… the intolerance, the level of intolerance that's going on is really scary. It's not just happening in France, it's all over Europe, but it's specifically in France. Anti-Semitism, I think, is at an all-time high, people are becoming, behaving, and reacting in extremely fearful ways, so it's scary."
Madonna commented on an instance of particular intolerance in France last month, when gunmen shot and killed 12 people at the Paris offices of the satirical publication Charlie Hebdo.
"These are very scary times we are living in," she wrote via Instagram, responding to the deaths. "Ignorance breeds Intolerance and fear. We can only fight darkness with light! We are all Charlie! #revolutionoflove #rebelhearts."
