Paul van Dyk Calls Madonna’s Drug Comment the Biggest Mistake of Her Career
Posted by George H. Sirois on 03.29.2012
He doesn’t think she was thinking much…
Billboard spoke with DJ/producer Paul van Dyk, who said that Madonna's comment at Ultra Music Festival "the biggest mistake of her career."
During the festival, Madonna said to her crowd of over 50,000: "Electronic music has been a part of my life since the beginning of my career," then asked, "How many people in this crowd have seen Molly (the street name for ecstasy and its derivatives)?"
van Dyk said, "I don't think she was thinking much. The only thing she was probably thinking was, 'I need to connect with a young crowd,' and she made the biggest mistake of her career. Madonna was so stupid to actually call out drug abuse in front of a crowd of 18-year-olds. This is not what our music is about. It's really counterproductive."
"I think we have a problem with calling it a new movement or a breakthrough in America. We had massive festivals in the mid-'90s; I remember playing big shows, like Electric Daisy in L.A. in 2008, which drew something like 65,000 people. This was before the pop artists started to sound danceable, so in a way it's not really something that needed a breakthrough. I think what people are referring to these days is a popped-down version of what our music actually is. I hope those pop stars all go back where they came from and do their normal pop music again."
Madonna posted an explanation on Twitter after the festival: "I don't support drug use and I never have. I was referring to the song called 'Have You Seen Molly' written by my friend Cedric Gervais who I almost worked with on my last album."
