Two Pulse nightclub shooting survivors took issue with Madonna’s graphic new music video for “God Control.”
The video depicts a mass shooting at a disco nightclub in what appears to be a nod to the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016 which claimed 49 lives. Madonna arrives at the club and while everyone is dancing a gunman starts shooting into the crowd and bloody bodies fall to the ground.
“The story you are about to see is very disturbing,” reads the video’s intro. “It shows graphic scenes of gun violence. But it’s happening every day. And it has to stop.”
The video calls for gun reform but its intense subject matter was a problem for two Pulse shooting survivors.
Patience Carter told TMZ that the shooting scenes were similar to what she experienced on June 12, 2016. She also feels the disclaimer should have been more urgent.
Brandon Wolf also told TMZ that Madonna never reached out to the victims, their families or the survivors after the shooting. Wolf questions her motive for releasing the video three years later and says “God Control” doesn’t pay tribute to the victims and survivors of Pulse or even acknowledge the event. Wolf says he hasn’t seen the video because he doesn’t want to relive the trauma.
In a statement, Madonna says she wanted to create a call to action for gun control.
“I want to draw attention through my platform as an artist to a problem in America that is out of control and is taking the lives of innocent people. This crisis can end if our legislators act to change the laws that fail to protect us all,” Madonna said.
Watch below. WARNING: The video contains scenes of graphic gun violence.
