Madonna ‘ripped off the black, gay community’?
Director Sheldon Larry‘s new musical “Leave It On The Floor” portraits the world of black, gay, drag balls as full of glamour and sultry songs, sensual dancing and gorgeous men bathed in glitter – and he wanted to make the movie as real as possible, so he enlisted the help of Beyoncé’s creative director Kim Burse and gave many parts in the movie to the young black men from the gay-ball community. Larry, himself openly gay, talks to The Voice about the eccentricity of his film – and claims that Madonna ripped the off the black, gay community stealing the idea for her iconic 90s hit “Vogue” from the ball world.
“Most of the kids in the ball world are runaways and throwaways,” he says. “They’ve been tossed out by their family because they are gay or transgender. They find each other on the street and they connect in the club. And every six or seven weeks, they stage a ball and compete in different category such as Voguing.”
“I used to see Madonna at these balls,” he recalls. “Her song Vogue was taken out of this world and so was the dance. In this film, I didn’t want to rip them off, as I felt Madonna had in the past. I wanted to put these kids centre-stage and celebrate who they are by bringing positivity to the culture as a whole.”
From The Voice.