STEP ASIDE, HATERS. MADONNA IS HAVING THE LAST LAUGH. AGAIN

They are the kind of headlines that would make the average 56-year-old immediately consider putting down a deposit on the nearest retirement home.



YES, THAT’S MADONNA’S BUM. NO DOUBT SHE’S SENDING AN, UM, CHEEKY MESSAGE TO HER DETRACTORS. (PHOTO BY JASON MERRITT/GETTY IMAGES)
“Is Madonna too old?” and “Is Madonna too sad at this point?” jostle alongside regular edicts as to how the pop queen is “washed up” and that her “career is over.”

“At a certain point, we all must face this one, single, tragic truth,” declared pop culture website Pajiba last year, “Madonna might be just kind of pathetic now.”

“Please retire in peace” pleaded Crushable, in one of the countless less than charitable assessments of Madonna Louise Ciccone that have dogged the latter phase of her 30-plus year career.

But as fashionable as it has become to mock the bottom-baring, stunt-pulling superstar, Madonna may just yet — once again — have the last laugh.Despite being criticised for charging steep prices for her upcoming tour, tickets to the pop icon’s concerts have shown no sign of fan fatigue, with seats to her December show in Paris selling out within five minutes of going on sale.Closer to home, Madonna’s latest album, Rebel Heart, debuted at the top of the Australian charts on its release earlier this month.

As Hardeep Phull recently noted in the New York Post, critics who carp about Madonna’s supposed struggle for relevancy overlook the fact that the woman who inspired a generation of copycats is not so easily cast aside.

“But in truth, young singers are still clamouring to work with the Material Girl — because in pop music, she’s still a god,” Phull wrote.Acknowledging the staying power of a musician who has outlasted a thousand imitators, Phull pointed out that while much younger acts battle to fill stadiums, Madonna will be playing to sold-out arenas across the globe later this year.

“Not only does pop music still want Madonna, it positively needs her,” Phull concluded.

In a sign that the haters’ open season on Madonna might be drawing to a close, The Atlantic’s Spencer Kornhaber also found some kind words for the music veteran in a recent review.“If her attempts to keep pushing boundaries don’t quite work out this time, if she hasn’t had a bona fide hit in eight years, that’s okay. She’ll keep working.”

Not too shabby for a has-been.

dailytelegraph.com.au