TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images; Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagicMadonna called it "irrelevant" and "negative." And Nicki Minaj? She's calling it "disappointing."
So if M.I.A. was trying to impress her fellow performers with that Super Bowl halftime middle-finger salute, well, looks like she's 0-for-2.
Minaj spoke out about the headline-grabbing, FCC-courting, Madonna-angering bird flip in a call with E! News' Ryan Seacrest this morning (where she was discussing that other controversy she's involved in).
"My first feeling was disappointment just because—only because—of my respect for Madonna," she said. "Even though I'm a cuckoo lady, too, but I couldn't do it, I could never be able to do it because of the strength of Madonna."
Specifically, the strength of her respect for the pop icon.
"There are fines that go into these things, I just thought, 'Oh my god, I hope they don't penalize Madonna.' "
And while she didn't condone it, Nicki did say that something like this may have been expected…and that Madonna herself was no stranger to attention-grabbing performances.
"In hindsight now it's like, you know what? Madonna knows the artist that MIA is, and, you know, it was her decision to take the risk with all of us, we're kind of all firecrackers, and she took that risk and she's done some crazy things in becoming the icon that she is and I think that's why she was able to forgive M.I.A."
Funny, the part where she said all was forgotten must've slipped us.
Still, Minaj still has nothing but love for her coperformer.
"I love M.I.A. and I don't really want to say anything that is the wrong thing, but me personally, I couldn't see myself doing it, just because of respect for Madonna because I wouldn't want any backlash to come back on Madonna."
At least on that front, it's so far, so good.