Madonna DVD Banned Here...

Taken from the Nudew Paper...

Madonna DVD banned here
Cross scene could be reason

IF you are a Madonna fan waiting for her Confessions Tour on DVD, forget it.

By Sheela Narayanan
04 February 2007

IF you are a Madonna fan waiting for her Confessions Tour on DVD, forget it.

The DVD has been banned here.

The New Paper understands it is because of a controversial mock crucifixion that the 48-year-old singer (left, performing in Amsterdam) staged during her world tour last year.

She performed the song Live To Tell suspended from a cross while wearing a crown of thorns.

When we contacted Warner Music Singapore, its marketing manager, Mr Simon Nasser, said the Media Development Authority has not approved the DVD's release.

MDA could not be reached for comment at press time.

The DVD had its worldwide release on 29 and 30 Jan.

Mr Nasser said Warner Music had submitted it for approval last month.

The application and a subsequent appeal were rejected.

'We were asked to remove the cross scene in the video but Warner Singapore does not have the rights from Madonna's management to do that,' he said.

The Confessions world tour, which went to 25 cities in seven countries, has drawn protests.

The BBC reported that church groups in the US and Europe condemned the performance and in the Netherlands, a priest was arrested after he attempted to stop the Dutch leg of the tour by making a hoax bomb threat.

Dutch Protestant groups wanted to bring blasphemy charges against Madonna, but the Amsterdam prosecutors' office refused, saying the scene was subject to different interpretations.

Madonna released a statement after the Japan leg of the tour in September last year, saying that her act was not mocking the church.

She said: 'My performance is neither anti-Christian, sacrilegious nor blasphemous. Rather, it is my plea to the audience to encourage mankind to help one another and to see the world as a unified whole.'

The performance, she explained, was intended to draw attention to the millions of African children dying of Aids.

It also brought her a lot of money.

US music magazine Billboard reported that the Confessions tour made US$193.7 million ($297m) and was the highest-earning show by a female artiste.

Madonna fans were able to catch the concert on cable TV's Channel V.

The channel also gave away the DVDs as part of a promotional campaign in Kuala Lumpur last month.

This is not the first time Madonna has had a run-in with religious people.

In 1989, the Vatican condemned her music video Like A Prayer, which featured burning crosses, statues crying blood and Madonna seducing a black Jesus.

Mr Brenton Wong, 44, a public relations consultant, said he was not surprised by the ban.

'It is understandable. In Singapore we are sensitive about provoking religious groups,' he said.

But he also thinks our society is mature enough to handle the provocative material that Madonna dishes out.

'She's known to do it,' he said. 'People should not read so much into it.'