Madonna has accused BBC Radio 1 of “ageism” after a programmer for the station stated they would not broadcast the singer’s new single “Living for Love” in an effort to lower the demographic of its audience. Madonna, who called the station’s decision “discriminatory and unfair,” told The Sun, “I was like, ‘Wait a second. Shouldn’t it have to do with whether you wrote a good, catchy pop song?'”
While the BBC initially dismissed the notion that Madonna’s age had anything to do with the Rebel Heart track being left off the station’s playlist — “An artist’s age is never a factor,” the BBC said in a statement — Radio 1’s head of music George Ergatoudis was more frank in his comments regarding the “ban” of Madonna’s music. Ergatoudis said, “The BBC Trust have asked us to go after a young audience. We’ve got to concentrate on people aged 15 to 30. We have to bring our average age down. That’s something we’re very conscious of. The vast majority of people who like Madonna, who like her music now, are over 30 and frankly, we’ve moved on from Madonna.”
