It wasn't immediately clear in the aftermath of Madonna's Super Bowl halftime show whether the Material Girl had signed off on M.I.A.'s raised middle finger. She hadn't, and Her Madgesty was not pleased. "I actually didn't know until I left," Madonna said on Ryan Seacrest's radio show. "I found out about it in the elevator on my way to go to the car to get to the airport... I wasn't happy about it… It seemed negative. It's one of those things that's such a teenager, kind of, irrelevant thing to do… There was such a feeling of love and unity there. What was the point? It was just out of place." Handing pompons to a revolutionary—who could have expected trouble?
14. DEADMAU5 vs. MADONNA
The EDM hero wasn't in the mood to dance when he thought Madonna was stereotyping his world as a drug culture. The title of her MDNA album was widely perceived as a pun on the Ecstasy ingredient MDMA, and when she played the Ultra Music Festival, she shouted "Have you seen Molly?"—code for Ecstasy. "Very classy there Madonna," Deadmau5 wrote on Facebook. "Such a great message for the young music … Quite the f'n philanthropist. but hey, at least yer HIP AND TRENDY!... cant smack my head hard enough right now… That's your big contribution to EDM?... hipsterspeak for looking for drugs?... you f---ing IDIOT. " Madonna responded by tweeting a photo of herself with Micky Mouse ears and wrote, "From one mouse to another 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 album." They almost kissed and made up: Deadmau5 offered "respect for clearing it up personally" and Madonna wrote, "You should have called me first, we could have cleared it up 'privately.'"
15. ELTON JOHN vs. MADONNA
Elton's problems with Madonna pre-date their competition for the best original song award at the Golden Globes—but that didn't hurt. "Madonna doesn't have a f---ing chance" of winning, he told Carson Daly. When she did beat him, Elton's husband David Furnish lashed out: "Madonna. Best song???? F--- off!!!... Madonna winning Best Original Song truly shows how these awards have nothing to do with merit. Her acceptance speech was embarrassing in its narcissism. And her criticism of Gaga shows how desperate she really is." Later in the year, Madonna coyly dedicated the song "Masterpiece" to Elton, as she did to fellow combatant Lady Gaga.
16. DERYCK WHIBLEY vs. CHAD KROEGER and AVRIL LAVIGNE
Sum 41 singer Whibley dressed as his ex-wife, Lavigne, for Halloween—and his girlfriend dressed as Avril's fiancée, Nickelback frontman Kroeger, in a not entirely flattering costume. In response, Kroeger—using Nickelback's Twitter account—wrote, "Hey Deryck loved the costumes! we were going to dress up as you guys this year but all the parties had celebrity themes haha!" Who to root for? The world is so torn!
17. THE BLACK KEYS vs. NICKELBACK
Nickelback was also taking it on the chin from hipper quarters. "Rock & roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world," the Black Keys' Patrick Carney said in Rolling Stone. "Rock & roll is the music I feel the most passionately about, and I don't like to see it f---ing ruined and spoon-fed down our throats in this watered-down, post-grunge crap, horrendous s---. " Later, he semi-apologized, saying, "I didn't mean to single them out… There's much worse bands than Nickelback, maybe."
18. LINDSAY LOHAN vs. PITBULL
Lohan sued him for mentioning her in the song "Give Me Everything," claiming it would cause her reputation "irreparable harm." The incredibly defaming lyric in question: "I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan." We pray to the gods of ludicrousness that this one somehow makes it to court.
