Madonna's AIDS Memorial Tribute, Luther Vandross Controversy

[turi]

During Madonna's "Celebration Tour" in Sacramento, a moving tribute took place as an image of Luther Vandross was unexpectedly added to the "Live to Tell" AIDS Memorial wall, sparking discussions due to his rumored AIDS-related struggles despite his official cause of death being attributed to a stroke in 2005. Madonna oversees the memorial's

Comments

[caramelaffair]

The positive thing (no pun intended) to come out of Madonna's shows for me was it helped me discover the AIDS memorial page on Instagram. Literally almost every day I will take some time and read every one's story that is featured on the page. I like being able to help remember and connect with who is featured, even though I obviously didn't know them. Plus it's helped me discover people that I didn't even know beforehand and dig their work. I.e. Klaus Nomi and John Sex.

I love how hilariously 80s this is. Catchy tho.

[warwarwar]

I respect klaus nomi and all his contributions but man does he freak me the fuck out lol

[ohhhophelia]

It’s one of the best accounts to ever come out of IG, and I’m so glad to see it shine in this way.

[rainbows_are_ok]

I am in a deep deep research binge about Basquiat/80s NY art scene right now and I have Klaus Nomi's wiki page open right now because I want to learn more about him!

[therearewords]

Good Gods what's going on here.

[waffletaco]

This formatting. No...

Also, i knew about the gay rumors. But not HIV being any cause of his death. It was hard seeing his interview post stroke with Oprah.

Anyway, here's "Glow of Love", aka the song Janets "All For You" samples!

[hellojeds]

What an incredible voice!

I didn't know of the gay rumours until a few years ago, and I still don't know a lot about him. If they are true, I feel so sorry for him if he didn't feel he could come out. I can only hope he was just intensely private and was able to live an authentic life despite not being publicly out.

[waffletaco]

I didnt look too deep into it, so im not sure if it was a glass closet where people who needed to know knew, or what.
But his career height was definitly not a time it was still safe to come out, especially when his core demo prolly would have abandoned him.

Here's a great live performance from an old tour

[funhouse]

This performance was probably the only part of the show that will stay with me for a long time

If his family want him removed then she probably should

[ichabod_crake]