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This is why Madonna has last laugh after Wayne Rooney slated World Cup final halftime show

Wayne Rooney wasn't sitting on the fence when it came to his thoughts on the FIFA World Cup final halftime show, but Madonna could be about to have the last laugh

[Madonna performed at the World Cup Final half-time show]

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Madonna performed at the World Cup Final half-time show(Image: BBC)

Its with VAR-like anticipation that we wait to discover who might suffer most from the wrath of Wayne Rooney.

I thought it was c**p, declared the former England striker turned Simon Cowell of the pundit box, after watching the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina delayed for eleven excruciating minutes by a half-time show featuring Shakira, Burna Boy, K-pop superstars BTS and the stars of Sesame Street . His favourite part? When it was finished.

And he wasnt the only one who couldnt tell pop star from Muppet. This is like a bad trip, Liam Gallagher wrote on X amid a polarised reaction to the charity show online, while Count Binface tipped Rooney as the next commentator for Eurovision.

[Ronaldinho, Madonna and Ronaldo at the 2026 world cup final]

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Madonna was joined by Brazilian football icons Ronaldinho and Ronaldo during her performance(Image: FIFA via Getty Images)

Who most riled the Roons? Justin Bieber playing a vibe-killing acoustic ballad in half a jumper? BTS over-estimating the crossover appeal of sweet, teen-friendly pop and Argentinian football? Show curator Chris Martin and Coldplay closing the show surrounded by a childrens choir, performing a massive sing-along anthem that nobody knew?

Our moneys certainly not on Madonna, the Teflon Queen of Pop. Not just because shed already performed her remix of Music and Danceteria alongside Brazilian soccer stars Ronaldo and Ronaldinho and left the field before the Cookie Monster showed up.

Not just because her new album Confessions II has hit Number One in 20 countries worldwide. But because, over four decades plagued with traumas and setbacks, shes repeatedly proven herself the ultimate pop survivor.

Every sling and arrow the world has thrown at her for over 40 years, Madonna has Madgesterially overcome. Early in her career she suffered sexual assault, an MTV ban over the bisexual orgy in the _Justify My Love_video and the threat of arrest in Canada for simulating masturbation with a crucifix on her notorious Blonde Ambition tour in 1990. Yet her rise to the very peak of the pop sphere only became more stratospheric for every controversy she courted.

She has rattled the cassocks of several popes. Pope John Paul II objected to the burning crosses, stigmata and interracial romance with a Jesus-like figure in the Like a Prayer video and described the Blonde Ambition tour as one of the most satanic shows in the history of humanity, and encouraged Italian fans to boycott her. In 2006, the Vatican of Pope Benedict XVI called for Madonnas excommunication, describing the mock crucifixion on her Confessions tour as blasphemous. But shes shaken off condemnation from the highest religious seats like holy water off a ducks back.

[Wayne Rooney speaks during the World Cup final]

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Wayne Rooney didn't hold back on his World Cup final halftime show thoughts(Image: BBC Sport)

More recently, she shocked the VMA Awards 2003 by snogging Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, cougared Drake in similar fashion at Coachella 2015, fell off the stage at the Brits 2015 and had to reverse-autotune her pancake-flat 2019 performance at Eurovision before putting it on YouTube. And yet, as this months Confessions II continues a lifelong streak of chart-topping albums, none of it has made the slightest dent on her standing.

Madonna is simply pops most prominent and impervious untouchable. The advances she pioneered for pop and dance music, the taboos she broke forever around sexuality and religion and the giant leaps she made in terms of female expression and business autonomy have all made her an institutional icon.

When Miley twerks, Sabrina swears or Taylor re-records another kiss-off to the music industry patriarchy, theyre stepping in Madonnas deep footprints.

And thats not to mention a historic catalogue of hits that, in a digital age when even the biggest pop smash might go virtually unnoticed by the masses, have made her Queen of Pop throne unassailable. In short, shes done so much for so many that shes beyond failure - make her Prime Minister and she might even last more than two years.

Certainly the screeching critical boot of Wayne Rooney wont bring her down; shell stay at the top until at least Roy Keane comes against her.

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