Madonna defends anti-Donald Trump speech at Women's March

Madonna has defended her controversial speech at the Women’s March in Washington and insisted her words were taken “wildly” out of context.

During the massive anti-Trump protest, the pop singer told a crowd of more than half a million that she had thought about “blowing up the White House”.

Madonna has now sought to clarify her remarks, explaining that she was talking metaphorically and the speech had to be judged in its entirety. The 58-year-old said she was not a “violent person” and did not promote violence in any form.

“I want to clarify some very important things. I am not a violent person, I do not promote violence and it's important people hear and understand my speech in it's entirety rather than one phrase taken wildly out of context,” Madonna said in an Instagram post on Sunday.

“My speech began with ‘I want to start a revolution of love.’ I then go on to take this opportunity to encourage women and all marginalised people to not fall into despair but rather to come together and use it as a starting point for unity and to create positive change in the world.”

“I spoke in metaphor and I shared two ways of looking at things - one was to be hopeful, and one was to feel anger and outrage, which I have personally felt. However, I know that acting out of anger doesn’t solve anything. And the only way to change things for the better is to do it with love.”

Madonna's Washington speech, which used the F-word three times, prompted some television networks to abruptly stop filming their live feeds of the protest due to the expletives used. It also sparked criticism on social media, with people taking her remark about thinking about “blowing up the White House” literally and arguing it was “irresponsible”.

In the address, Madonna compared violence and peaceful protest, concluding that violence was not the answer and the world needed to choose love instead.

“Yes, I’m angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House, but I know this won’t change anything,” she told the crowd of thousands. “We cannot fall into despair. As the poet WH Auden wrote on the eve of World War II: ‘We must love one another or die. I choose love’. Are you with me? Say this with me: We choose love. We choose love. We choose love.“

According to the New York Times, crowd counting experts estimated the Women’s march in Washington to be roughly three times the size of the audience at President Trump’s inauguration.

In 60 countries and on seven continents across the world, protesters took to the streets to march against President Donald Trump as part of the Women’s Marches. In London, close to 100,000 people marched, holding signs such as “p*ssy grabs back”, “dump Trump”, and “free Melania”.