P!nk ‘Saddened and Disappointed’ Over Feud Headlines: ‘Art Can Never Be the Focus When You’re a Woman’
P!nk wants people to focus on her new album, Trustfall — rather than dig up a “silly feud” she had with Christina Aguilera more than 20 years ago.
The pop star released Trustfall on Feb. 17. Her latest effort debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, becoming her ninth top 10-charting album.
“With me, when you’re a certain age and a woman, they tell you that what you do doesn’t matter, really, anymore, so just do what you do,” she said in a recent interview about Trustfall with Billboard. “And I’ve kind of always felt like that — at 16, I felt like that. But I don’t write songs for other people. I’m very narcissistic when it comes to songwriting, in a very pure way. I write what needs to be written for me, and if somebody else can relate to it, then that’s awesome. We’re all having this human experience, and we’re not all that different.”
While making the rounds with press for the release, P!nk was asked to rank her music videos during a visit with Buzzfeed UK. She put “Lady Marmalade,” her 2001 single with Aguilera, Mya and Lil’ Kim, at the bottom of the list, recalling that “there were some personalities. Kim and Mya were nice.” Some assumed she was “shading” Aguilera, decades after the shoot, to which she responded on Twitter: “I’m not ‘shading’ someone by telling it over and over and over what actually happened. I’m zero percent interested in your f—ing drama.”
On Sunday (Feb. 26), she opened up about how it feels to be talking about that right now, instead of all the hard work she put into Trustfall.
“I’m so saddened and disappointed by the narrative surrounding some of the press I’ve been doing around my album Trustfall,” she wrote on Instagram, where she shared a sweet selfie with her child. “While some of the responsibility lays with me and my inability to lie, and my uncanny ability to overshare- my real disappointment lies in the fact that the art can never be the focus when you’re a woman.”
P!nk wrote, “The fact that I created one of the most beautiful albums with the most beautiful people -sang my ass off, made myself wholly vulnerable – eleven albums in, selling out stadiums, raising good kids, steadily employing hundreds of good, hardworking people, the only thing they ask you about over and over is a silly feud from your twenties.”
“I take responsibility also- I’m out of practice dodging the bulls— that gets thrown at us hardworking women,” she said. “I’m notorious for saying too much. But I’ve never lied. And for every one or two women I’ve had issue with – there are hundreds that I’ve complimented and supported and loved on. But we don’t talk about that.”
“I wonder when the last time Bradley Cooper or Robert Deniro were asked in interview after interview about any argument they’d ever had. How about Christian Bale? We stick to the art with them, don’t we? I’d like to have the same opportunity. I also believe in authentic apology- and owning your mistakes. I should say less. Every time. Say less. Something I’m working on. This was a good reminder. My wish is to share the pains and the celebrations of this messy life through music and on stage. And I’ve accomplished that. Incredibly and consistently,” said P!nk.
“To Christina- you know where we stand,” she said, directing the end of her message to Aguilera. “Resolved. Onwards and upwards.”
See P!nk’s post below.
Ashley Iasimone
Billboard
