Twenty years after it was filmed, pop icon Madonna has finally released the music video for her hit song American Life.
The video, which is probably her most controversial to date, was supposed to be released in 2003, but it was canceled at the last minute due to a lot of bad press.
While the actual melody was a wry gander at Madonna’s encounters of popularity and achievement, the first video was rather a realistic critique of the then-unavoidable American intrusion into Iraq.
The video shows Madonna and her backup dancers all dressed in army uniforms getting ready for a fashion show in which soldiers and war victims walk the runway together.
Disinterested fashion experts observe the “fashion” show and look on in silence as violence breaks out on the catwalk and blood and guts spill everywhere.
Due to the numerous graphic depictions of violence, including dismembered and disemboweled victims laying on the runway, the video would have been heavily censored or even banned if it had been released during the heightening tensions between the United States and Iraq.
Madonna declared that the video would never be released in response to the outrage.
“I have chosen not to deliver my new video. It was made before the war started, so I don’t think it’s appropriate to show it now. Because of the unpredictable condition of the world and out of awareness and regard to the military, who I support and petition God for, I would rather not risk affronting anybody who could misconstrue the significance of this video,” she said in 2003.
To commemorate the album’s 20th anniversary, Madonna has finally uploaded the original music video to her official YouTube channel.
