Celebrity News

Malawi Prez slams Madonna for ‘making poor people dance for her’

A war of words seems to have erupted between Malawi President Joyce Banda and Madonna after the singer’s weeklong goodwill trip.

Madonna and her four children flew to the southeast African country last week to check on her charity, Raising Malawi. Before leaving, Madge wrote the president an error-filled letter in which she addressed the president as “Joyce.”

It seems that Banda did not take kindly to the letter and the visit itself. She told a journalist (via The Telegraph) that officials were not notified about the trip and the 50-year-old’s star treatment was undeserved.

“She just came unannounced and proceeded to villages and made poor people dance for her. And immigration officials opened the VIP lounge for her just because previously she enjoyed the VIP status,” Banda said.

The Queen of Pop was VIP when she arrived, but Banda reportedly stripped Madonna’s elevated status as she exited the country. Madonna was thus forced to go through standard security checks and wait in lines with regular travelers. Madonna and her spokesman were reportedly “very annoyed” by the status change.

According to Business Insider, Madonna has reportedly spent more than $11 million on Malawian projects since 2006.

However, she canceled plans to build an all-girls school to build 10 community schools instead, Banda told The Telegraph last year, “Madonna came to Malawi to build a school, an academy like the one Oprah (Winfrey) build in South Africa, but she changed her mind.”

Banda also has issues with Madonna’s adoption of two Malawian children, David and Mercy. “I have a problem with a lot of things around the adoption of the children and the changing of the mind and then coming back to build community schools,” she said.