Madonna defended her recent use of a swastika superimposed on the face of French National Front leader Marine Le Pen, arguing that the image was meant to highlight "the intolerance human beings have for one another."
"I always like to tell a story," the singer told a Brazilian television station (via the New York Times. "Music should be about ideas, right? Ideas inspire music."
The image appears behind the popstar during her rendition of "Nobody Knows Me." Last week, the far right party vowed to sue the singer after the image appeared during a concert in Paris.
Provocative imagery has long been a staple of Madonna's career. Most recently, she refused to cut guns out of her performance just days after the shootings in Aurora, Colo. Though a ban on guns on stage was in effect in Scotland (where she performed Saturday), the singer waved fake pistols and AK-47s as planned. Police had warned her against the gun-toting, a pre-existing part of the MDNA show.
The singer's tour is expected to be among the highest-grossing runs of all time. She's performing in support of MDNA, an album named after a pun on MDMA, a drug. The reference -- and her now infamous wink at ecstasy use at Miami's Ultra Music Festival ("how many of you have seen molly tonight?") -- irked dance music producer Deadmau5, who took Madge to task on Twitter. The feud was recently rekindled when Deadmau5 called her a "funky grandma" in an interview Rolling Stone.
